PMD: Gemstone
by serenity-topaz
Summary: The world of Pokémon has been peaceful for some time now, and forecasts predicted it to stay that way for a long, long time. So what was the purpose of the human's arrival? Only time will tell. Disclaimer: I do not own the Mystery Dungeon spin-off games - that belongs to Chunsoft and Nintendo. (Rated T for minor violence and swearing)
1. Prologue

Hello! This is a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fanfiction I started to write at around the time Explorers of Time/Darkness was released (which was a very long time ago...).

I originally posted the fanfic on a forum, but decided to rewrite most of the chapters again due to bad writing.

So anyway, to all the older readers - you may notice some subtle changes in the new version, but the main story will stay the same. I hope you guys like it. To any new readers - welcome, grab some popcorns and enjoy the adventure!

EDIT (25/11/2012): Fixed up some minor details.

* * *

The sweltering heat permeated the classroom as the maths teacher droned on about the method of solving a quadratic equation, while rotating fans above did nothing but circulated suffocating hot air across students' desks. Accompanying the monotonous atmosphere were the cicadas outside, singing in a symphony so terrible they would've made Mozart or Beethoven turn in their graves.

Barely anyone was paying attention as the chalk dragged around the blackboard, making scratching noises. Some students tried to take away the boredom by staring out the window, but the sun had been punishing the decrepit sports field with its rays, so much so the grass did not dare lift their head and show their once-invigorating green faces. Birds that once flocked here seemed to have disappeared elsewhere, possibly to find a waterhole or bird baths that haven't been evaporated yet. It didn't take long before one boy gave up on what Mother Nature had to offer and put pen to paper… drawing stick figures.

Sitting two rows behind him, a girl wiped sweat off her forehead and tried to concentrate on her maths equations. _What happens when you multiplied the two terms together? What value is **x** supposed to be?_ Time and time again her brown eyes would divert to the purple digital watch wrapped around her left wrist, only to meet disappointment as the smiling face on the watch told her she had five more minutes to endure. _Too long!_ She thought, her hands impatiently brushing strands of loose brown hair off her face. _Why can't it be one minute? Or thirty seconds? If I had to stay here any longer—_

"Jennifer?"

"Yeah?" she answered in a bored voice. _When will this end?_

"Could you give the class an example on this equation?"

"Sure," sighing, she managed to propel herself to the front and quickly wrote down something, before collapsing back to her seat, yawning.

"Very good, Jennifer," said the teacher, ignoring the slight frown on his pupil's face. This math teacher, for some reason, is against calling his students by nicknames. Jenny didn't like being called by her full name because it sounded like she was being reprimanded by a strict judge.

_Jennifer, please come here. Jennifer, I like this flower. Jennifer, do not touch this… I don't think I'd be able to stand being spoken to like that all the time._ She thought. _It's so strict and… formal!_

"Now, I would like everybody to please turn to page—" but before the teacher could get in one more word a crisp, ringing sound pierced through the entire school. The boy in front thought he was dreaming until other students let out loud cheering noises, and not even the teacher's authoritative voice can overwhelm them. Among the excitement a deep male voice called out from the speaker system, "That's the end of school. I wish you all have a happy, safe holiday…"

But no one paid attention to the principal as students frantically stuffed their books back to their bags like thieves who had just robbed a service station. None was faster than Jenny, however – she was out of the classrooms in five seconds, pushing and shoving past others as the corridor rang out with hubbub of conversations. It didn't take long before the school's front gate came to her view, where a row of buses were waiting to whisk the eager students away to swimming pools, the beach, or the comfort of their air-conditioned homes. The arrival of a light breeze cooled off the heat wave temporarily, allowing the trees to exercise their limbs a little.

"Jenny! Slow down!" shouted a fellow student from her class.

"You want to marry the bus or something?" yelled another, but the girl wasn't about to let the comments slow her down, soon becoming the first to board the blue bus.

_Huff… I made it!_ Thought Jenny as the air-conditioner attacked her skin. Selecting the seat near one of the air vents she plonked her bag down, waiting for other students. _Huh, that's a change. There are not as many people today. Good. I'm so sick of standing up on a crammed bus._ She shuddered at the memory of the time she lost her footing and collapsed onto a boy's lap. Even though these kinds of things happen on a regular basis, it was still humiliating – especially when the hormonal teenage boy started making lewd comments about her in public.

"Thank god he transferred to another school," she uttered, "That's one less creep the Year Seven girls have to deal with."

Eventually the bus driver shifted his gear and his vehicle moved from the kerbside. As the diesel engine droned underneath her feet, Jenny watched the same trees and houses passing her like every other day. She can't complain, though, as she knew every signposts and traffic light she passed brought her closer and closer to her summer vacation. Glancing around the bus, everybody else seemed to be thinking the same thing. Some were discussing their plans about going to Europe; some were excited about sleepovers and some were already starting their sleeping marathon under the cool air.

In amidst the conversations, a loud group of girls to her right were discussing the latest pop star appearing in their favourite magazines, while some of the boys mimicked puking motions behind their back.

"Oh, why don't you leave them alone?" she retorted. Sure, she couldn't care less about some pop star with mesmerising eyes and Colgate smiles, but she couldn't stand immature boys more.

"Yeah, you heard her!" one of the girls shouted, glad to know someone was protecting her celebrity crush.

"Ooh look, Daniel!" a boy next to her yelled loudly, "Your girlfriend is on the warpath!"

The comment led to a series of laughter and wolf-whistles as Jenny's face turned beetroot red, while the bus driver ordered everybody to settle down. This boy in question was the most annoying guy in his year, and he had the reputation of claiming particular girls to be his girlfriend, most of the time – no, always without the subject's consent. At the rate he's going, he would have a new 'girlfriend' every single week.

Unfortunately, the title had landed on Jenny's head this week.

"Yeah, how could I forget about that lovely lady…?"

_Better ignore them._ Jenny thought as she tried to bear with the boys' bad breaths and their stupid giggling, but it was easier said than done. _If you ignore them, they will stop._

"Hullo, I am I. P. Daly!" said Daniel in a high-pitched voice, "And I am here to marry you, Jenny!"

Upon hearing that, the group of boys hollered. Jenny looked to the girls for some support, but they seemed to have forgotten their saviour and began to engage in another conversation.

_Stay calm. You've already got into trouble with teachers for swearing at that group of boys once, remember? You don't want to provoke them again. _She clenched her fist. If a genie had appeared before her, she would've loved to have something to silence the boys – maybe one of those lollies from Harry Potter that made their consumer's tongue swell up. _Now wouldn't that be nice? _She thought.

Seeing as his charm wasn't working, Daniel pulled out his next trick - a slightly frayed ring made of twisted up toilet paper. He kneeled down behind her and said, "Look… I've even made an engagement ring for you! It's 19-carat silver…"

"Oooh!" the other boys joined in, "An engagement ring! He could be the one!"

_Just ignore them…_

"I'll hold you tight, baby all throughout the night—"

"And I will always love you—" one boy serenaded in what could've been voted as the most ear grating voices in history.

"But did you know that when it snows, my eyes became large and the lights that you shine can be seen…"

"Roses are red, violets are blue. I just want to say that I love you toooo!"

Someone slapped her back.

"My god!" finally reaching her limits, Jenny turned around shouted angrily, "Can you bunch of f-ing idiots just STOP IT?"

"Language!" the bus driver said sharply.

"But all I really wanted was for you to marry me," Daniel defended in a sugary voice.

_Oh. Okay. That was unnecessary, Jenny._

She scrutinised Daniel, who flicked his red hair and gave her a smile which could've easily put one of the young pop stars to shame. As she rubbed her chin some boys beside him teased, "Come on Jenny! You know you want to go out with him! After all, he's rich!"

"He's your Romeo, Juliet!"

Slowly, Jenny reached into her bag, watched on by the crones. But even the most observant boy in the group couldn't predict the flash of blue that shot out from her bag and connected with Daniel's nose.

"Oww!"

"Oh! Rejection!" one of the spectators yelled as others joined in with the laughter, only to be silenced by the reprimanding voice of the driver five seconds later. Meanwhile Daniel rubbed his sore nose, a bewildered expression on his face as his followers shuffled away with raised eyebrows.

"I… I… ahh!" he stuttered, tears forming in his eyes, "That really hurts…"

Seeing the boy cry brought a smile upon her face. _Well, now doesn't that piece of toilet paper look handy right now? Who knew sitting through those terrible chick-flicks actually helped?_ Shoving the piece of plastic back into her bag, she watched as the serial pest trudged back into his seat, dejected at his failed plan. _Still, I'd prefer to buy a laser gun instead and gladly exterminate that group of boys._

At least, as a consolidation, she wouldn't have to deal with annoying boys again for another month and a half. _Maybe they'll mature more after the holiday, but to be honest, I'm not expecting too much from that bunch of—_

"Everyone look outside!"

A sharp, screeching noise of a tyre greeted the passengers' ears. Like many of the window seat occupants, Jenny turned her head and saw a black utility charging from one of the side streets. Behind it, a white car with blinking red and blue lights was hot on its tails.

"Cool! A police chase!" one of the boys yelled.

It was like a scene out of an action movie: a policeman wearing light blue uniform took out a megaphone and poked his head out of the window, "Park your vehicle to the side!" he commanded as his partner beside him expertly manoeuvred the steering wheel, "I repeat, park your vehicle and surrender! You can't run forever!" But as the deafening siren got louder and louder, the driver did the exact opposite – with a loud rumble the black utility jerked right in an attempt to escape to the opposite lane.

Sure enough, the car obeyed the law of physics, but its high velocity made directional control almost impossible under the circumstances.

"Is it just me or—"

"Oh my god!" someone squealed, "It's coming towards us!"

"Ahh!"

There was barely any time to react. Screams of the students were short-lived as the utility's roars came down upon the occupants of the bus, its crowbar connected with Jenny's stomach. For a moment she flew backward, glass exploding into crystalline shards around her and embedding into her green uniform. A second later her upper body had hit the hard pavement before skittling several metres, the glass and mortar digging into her skin.

A stabbing pain shot through her body as she tried to move. Breathing proved to be difficult as she lay helpless, ten metres from where she originally sat.

"H… help…" she croaked. She could hear a voice or two, but they sound far, far away as the pain disappeared, only to be replaced by an imposing force which took over her movement. Desperate, she tried to call out again, but her voice was quickly stopped by a metallic liquid rising from her throat. It horrified and sickened her as she felt it dribbling down the side of her face.

"Stay… with… us…" a broken voice echoed, and two hands gripped her arms. She tried, she really tried to follow the instruction but it proved to be too much effort. Her body just wouldn't listen to her commands and something was blocking her respiratory system, burning up her nose and throat.

Slowly, a peaceful trance settled over her as she closed her eyes. Staying awake was proving to be too difficult. _Maybe I should just sleep, and then everything will be better. It feels so comfortable when I start to close my eyes… why is that person telling me to wake up? Stop it… just let me rest, please._

A moment passed before darkness and complete isolation greeted her. She could not tell whether she was still lying down or not. There was nothing for her to feel, to see or hear. It was just an inky black canvas in front of her, and the space was completely silence. It felt like an explored territory, the edge of the universe where no living beings have ever visited.

_I think I just died._ She wasn't sure where the voice came from, but she guessed it'd be inside her mind. It was unlike her usual demeanour to be so calm about this situation, yet, she didn't feel it something for her to be emotional about. _Death… so is this it?_

Suddenly one light appeared from the nothingness, as if the Big Bang had just began. Only it wasn't the brilliant, holy white beam from heaven or the fiery, evil light from hell.

It was a ball of cobalt blue energy.

* * *

PS: I do not own any of the lyrics those annoying boys were singing, except for the last one which isn't even a real song lyric. Just saying...


	2. Chapter 1 - Stolen

Oh, hello! We have reviewers! Well damn, there goes my plan of ninja-ing this underneath the many hundreds of PMD stories out there...ehe.

Ahem. Anyway... here is chapter one! Enjoy!

* * *

It was the perfect afternoon. The yellow sandy beach looked like a big chunk of gold from above, showing off its wealth to the world. A gentle breeze washed over the land, taking away some of the harshness from the everlasting ball of fuel in the sky. A certain sea god had also decided to rest on this beautiful day, her snores causing small waves to crash onto the beach, occasionally leaving behind treasures from the depth of the ocean. Foams crawled along the wet sand, their surface transforming into a spectrum of colours under the sun, before evaporating into nothingness.

On the beach stood two lonely figures, but upon closer inspection one of the figures was not truly alive. A little penguin crossed her light blue flippers, studying the large pile of sand in front of her intently. She had built the small hill using a wooden bucket over the last hour, intending to make an intricate sandcastle out of it. However, when the sand piled up to her height, she started having second thoughts.

_A detailed sandcastle might be too hard… maybe I can make a sand sculpture of a Pokémon, but who should I make? _She pondered, her yellow beak forming a smile as she recorded the outdoor art exhibition from last year, where a sand sculpture named "The Empress" had won the Community's Choice Award. It consists of a proud-looking Empoleon. Various fake gems were embedded into her crown, the lights which scattered from the 'jewels' radiated her presence to all spectators. She stood near the edge of the water looking out towards the sea, surveying her kingdom with contentment.

_It was so sweet. That Swampert made it in honour of his girlfriend!_ The Piplup sighed in adoration, recounting the moment when the artist proposed to the Empoleon. Everyone on the beach cheered, paper streamers were let off as the two lovers embraced each other happily…

That was when inspiration suddenly hit her.

"I know!" she muttered to herself, "I could make… yes! That would match up very well! Okay! Let's do it!"

With a good idea in mind, the Piplup started moulding the parts. Her flippers came at an advantage as she could brush off the sand and leave a smooth surface on her sculpture. However, it was still slow and infuriating work, as some sand occasionally fell off the structure due to either lack of moisture or too much of it. On one incident the Piplup accidentally knocked over what appeared to be part of an arm with her dark blue cape, resulting in a string of softly spoken curses. Determination soon became the key to reach her goal as she ran to and from the water, scooping up sand and mixing them into the right viscosity.

As she continued working through the afternoon, the sand sculpture started to take a more definite shape. The Piplup began to approach her work more cautiously. She have seen a few disasters, where an artist had accidentally destroyed their hard work due to a lack of precision. Again, her mind was set back to the outdoor exhibition, when an Infernape had overheated his structure of the Temporal Tower. The lack of moisture weakened the tower's structural integrity, causing it to collapse during judging.

Needless to say, some older residents of Treasure Town were less than impressed at the disaster. _There is no way I'm going to make this collapse._ She thought, applying lighter pressure to form the right contours. _Thank goodness there aren't many Pokémon here today. Otherwise, I'll be too nervous to make this!_

Nearing the completion of the sculpture, the Piplup ran off towards a dense area of vegetation, only to return a few minutes later, holding a stick in front of her. Relieved that no one had come to wreck the sculpture in her short absence, she continued her work.

"Careful… you don't want to destroy the whole thing…" keeping her flipper as steady as possible, the Piplup carved out what seemed to be two arches on the sphere that sat on top of the body, with a small jagged line in between both arches. Two vertical ellipses formed the eyes, and one final line was carefully drawn onto a small protrusion below the jagged line.

It took a few more minutes of precision work before she was able to breathe a sigh of relief. A Piplup just like herself stood in front, one of her flippers leaning against a thick staff made out of a piled up column of sand. The sculpture was viewing the serene sea with a smile on her face, appreciating the gentleness of nature.

"Wait… an artist has to have his or her name on it somewhere." She picked up a stick and wrote 'by Rosalind' as neatly as possible on the sculpture's right foot, before stepping back, her head tilted from left to right.

_She looks a bit boring. _The Piplup walked around her work, scrutinising the sculpture from different angles. _Maybe I should add a little decoration._

There were litters of shells washed ashore. Some were white with brown arcs; a few had tinges of pink on them and some glowed orange when viewed underneath the sunlight. Rosa picked up a dozen, tossing a few of them around before settling down with a few that had nice colours on them. Tiptoeing back to the sculpture, she edged them slowly and cautiously onto its head, making sure they didn't fall off.

"There, a tiara," she muttered, "Oh! This might add a nice touch…"

Untying the plaited string, she took off her necklace and wrapped it around the sand sculpture. Hanging from the string was a curious gemstone cut in a diamond shape. The stone was red on one side and blue on the other, but both colours eventually meet in the middle, meshing together to form an 's' shaped curve.

"Perfect! I'll name it…_ Princess of the Sea__!" _said Rosa happily, the tip of the stick travelled around and formed the name on the left foot. Satisfied at her finishing touches, the Piplup sat down next to her sculpture.

Somewhere above the long stretch of horizon, a group of Wingull floated.

_So tired… but at least it's worth it._ Rosa closed her eyes, absorbing the sound of nature – from the soft rumbles of the ocean to the hurried footsteps of the wind blowing across her face. The Wingull's conversations were indecipherable from far away, but they added a nice touch to the nature's soundtrack. _I think I'll head over to the training dojo tomorrow. It's been three weeks since I had combat practice. Still... I really wish I can form an exploration team and go into mystery dungeons more often. Everyone shares the work, gain experiences from each other and it'll be a lot safer than going by yourself, too. _She sighed as she remembered the last request, which she had put towards an Ekan. Unfortunately he had to refuse her offer because he was already on another team's roster._ At least he was nice about it. Oh… everybody else is either not interested, or have commitments to other teams... speaking of which, didn't the Wave Sisters have a vacancy to fill? Maybe I should ask them about it..._

Rubbing dirt out of her eyes, Rosa turned to face her sculpture, "If only you were with me when I got stuck in Waterfall Cave," she spoke, "I wouldn't have to ask for help after all. We can explore together and become a great team like Team Raider…"

Her monologue was suddenly interrupted by a series of clinks. Raising her head, Rosa saw a white and brown, bipedal beagle walking back from the direction of Beach Cave, carrying a small bag overfilled with pebbles and broken corals. The Smeargle was heading back home from his afternoon scavenger hunt, when he spotted the strange statuary to his left. Eyeing it with great interest, he motioned at the artist.

Nodding in return, Rosa quickly stepped away, allowing the Smeargle to circle around her work. With his back facing her most of the time, Rosa could not tell what her critic was thinking. The constant nodding, hums under his breath and those intermittent waves of his paintbrush tail gave nothing away – who knew whether he was pleased at her efforts, or frowning at inconsistencies in her sculpture?

After several awkward minutes, the Smeargle finally stepped back.

"S-so," Rosa stuttered, rubbing her flippers, "Wh-what do you think, sir?"

"The sand texture is consistent, and you have a beautiful surface finish there, young lady," he praised as he picked up his bag, "I like the decorations – an interesting choice of material – but maybe tone it down next time as putting on too much spoils the sculpture's natural look. There's not enough detailing on the staff and her left foot is larger than her right, but you'll be able to improve on the details through more practice," he patted her back in encouragement, "Overall, it is a nice piece of art. Keep up the good work, and you'll start winning contests in the future."

Inside, Rosa could feel the bubbles in her stomach slowly receding. Sighing in relief, she gave a bow and the Smeargle walked back up the hill. _All that hard work really paid off!_ _It's not as good as "The Empress", and I am not proposing anyone, but it's a start. _Turning her attention back to her sand sculpture, she lightly brushed off a leaf which had stuck beneath a shell. _I'll tell gran about it tonight, maybe ask her if she knew Mister Smeargle personally—_

"Gee, what a pile of junk," said a voice suddenly.

"Ha! You call that art, amateur?" another voice sneered.

Three other Pokémon came onto the scene, and if there was anything that amplified the entrance of the trio, it would either be their strange tails or their charming expressions. In the middle of the group was a feline with a beige-coloured crescent marking on her face. The marking contrasted against the pink fur which covered her back. A pink, balloon-like feature with three little balls made up the end section of her tail. Her partner on the right was a purple monkey with a cowlick between his ears, and dragging behind him - at the end of his tail – was a cream-coloured hand with three fingers.

"You guys? What do you know about art?" said Rosa, slightly offended.

"Oh, I entered the outdoor art competition last year," said the third member – a yellow mouse with black stripes on his back, and a lightning bolt tail to match his element. "My professionalism tells me you won't even get past the first round with this piece of crap."

Rosa gave the three a glare, "I wouldn't be so cocky if I were you, Pikachu," she rebutted naively, "Smeargle just appraised the work. He said I have a chance to win contests."

"You mean, the Smeargle who led Treasure Town's art community?" he scoffed, "Yeah, right, like I'd believe you."

"The very same one," Rosa replied quietly, "See the bit of purple splotch here? He left this marking on all the artworks he judged last year. It's quite noticeable."

The Pikachu was taken aback, "W-well, I—" he knew how harsh Smeargle's judgments can be from the competition, remembering how he had missed out on third place because he tried to 'cover up bad detailing with excessive decorations' on _his_ sculpture of a sundae. "Oh, i-is that so? W-well, he was probably just being nice. He tells that to all the junior division entrants—"

He was quickly silenced by a nudge from the pink cat.

"Hmm… there are some details that need fixing… _Rosalind_," said Aipom, as he crouched down to study the sculpture. Almost on instinct the Piplup stepped back to give the purple monkey some space, before remembering that Aipom had insulted her just moments earlier.

"And exactly what was wrong with it, Aipom?"

"Oh, I'll tell you _exactly_ what was wrong with it," Aipom flashed a toothy grin at her, before stepping back and flourishing his arms dramatically, "Of course I will! Just you watch."

The Piplup thought he was making further studies to her artwork, until the Aipom's tail began to glow white. As the sudden realisation hit her like a speeding train, Rosa yelled and leapt forward, only to find herself hitting face first on the gritty sand as a pair of arms held her down. Meanwhile, Aipom jumped into the air, the end of his tail connecting with the head of the sculpture. The fragile princess never had a chance against the attack as she collapsed into a pile of ugly wet sand. Her decorations flew out like shrapnel pieces in an explosion, landing around her feet.

"No!"

"Woopsies," said Aipom, "I told you there was something wrong with it."

Finally freeing herself from Pikachu's restraints, the Piplup crawled up to assess the damage. To her utter horror her artwork was there no more, and only the debris of the aftermath greeted her. "Wh-what have… you done? How… how could you do this…?"

"Oh, there, there… Rosalind," said Skitty in a sweet voice, "I'm _so_ sorry about this dear, but the truth is we have to destroy it. Look… it's built it in a hazardous place. What if someone accidentally _injure_ themselves while on a morning walk?"

The sand sculpture – or the remains of it – was actually situated underneath Sharpedo Bluff. It's the one end of the beach where the traffic is nowhere near busy.

"And secondly, it's just too much of an eyesore to be here. What if someone ended up _blinding_ themselves looking at it?"

"Yeah, even a Magikarp can come up with something better!"

"Y-you bullies!" Rosa bellowed. Her flipper gripped firmly against a shell. "I spent hours on it! You're nothing but a bunch of cowards!"

"That's not very nice," Pikachu said innocently.

"We were only cleaning up the beach, and being good Treasure Town citizens," Skitty continued, a hurt expression worn upon her face.

"Yeah, we were only getting rid of this piece of graffiti for the good of the community," said Aipom, "We—hey, what's that?" he shouted, spotting a gleam in the sand.

"What's—oh!"

The handiness of his long tail (no pun intended) came to his aid as the purple monkey picked up the red and blue gemstone from the pile, "Ooh! What do we have here?" said Aipom, tossing it up and down with his tail.

"Oi! Give it back!" yelled Rosa angrily.

"Nice gemstone. Could be sold for a high price." The purple monkey held it up in the sunlight. Beams refracted from the gemstone made it glow with dazzling radiance, and Skitty's mouth began to water with great delight.

"That's my family heirloom! Give, it, back!" Rosa tried to grab it, but Aipom swiftly moved his tail around, toying with her as if she was a cat trying to catch a piece of string.

"Oops, missed again," Aipom smirked, this time 'accidentally' slapping the Piplup in the face. Stumbling backwards she was subsequently caught by Pikachu, his arms holding her firmly on the spot.

"Rosalind – that's your name, isn't it?" Skitty argued diplomatically, "Anyway, how can you prove the gemstone is yours, dear? There's nothing etched on it which proves your ownership to it. Isn't that right, Aipom?"

"Can't see any names on it, boss!"

"It was on my sculpture that your friend just ruined!" Rosa winced as Pikachu's paws dug into her flippers, "Now give it back or I'll go to the police—"

"Oh, you'll go to the police, eh?" Pikachu taunted, shoving her forward, "Oh no! The poor little Piplup is going to run to the police by herself!" his voice rose into a girly pitch, detonating little explosions of mock horror, "We could have you arrested for fee evasion, you know."

"Fee evasion?" Rosa stopped in her tracks, "What on earth are you talking about?"

"You still owe us 300 Poké, dear. You agreed pay us the sum when we rescued you," said Skitty in a condescending tone, "Oh no! Please don't tell me you forgotten about it! Well! Aren't _you_ lucky that we were _kind enough _to remind you about this?"

The Piplup gasped in shock. "I thought you were happy with that Shiny Box I gave you!" she said, "You said it yourself – the box was more valuable than the money!"

"That's what we initially thought, until Xatu opened it," said Skitty dryly, "The box only had a Wonder Gummi in it, and I can't split it between us three," she turned to her two teammates, "Come on, we should really get going now. I'm sure _dear Rosalind _will pay for the measly 300 Poké in the near future."

"Agreed," said her followers unanimously.

Just as the trio was making a run for it, a stream of bubbles hit Aipom, causing him to drop the gem in shock. Cursing, the monkey turned around and saw an enraged Rosa waddling towards him.

"You are not getting away with this!"

With quick thinking Aipom swiped his tail at the sand, picking the gem before tossing it up into the air randomly. Skitty somersaulted up like a graceful acrobat, catching the item before landing perfectly on her feet. The string spun around several times, before wrapping tightly around her front limb.

"So, you want to fight against us? Is that it?" tutting, the feline swung the gemstone as if it was a pendulum, "Dear, dear… well guys, looks like we have to fight now."

"Yeah! We'll show you what Team CBE is made of! We'll—"

Pikachu was soon silenced by another nudge. This time, it was from Aipom. Meanwhile, Rosa trembled on the spot. Two thoughts ran through her mind – one telling her she should've just gone and get her grandmother or other adult figures to deal with this, the other screaming at her for immediate action. The image of her artwork lying destroyed in the sand was flashing before her eyes, overlapped with a montage of Skitty's filthy paw holding her precious gemstone…

She swallowed hard and forced herself to look at the trio.

"B-b-bring it on!"

As if on cue, Aipom and Pikachu both launched towards her, leaving two trails of energy behind. With a frightened yelp the Piplup dived at the ground in front of her, narrowly missing both of her perpetrators. Escaping the initial dangers, Rosa scrambled up from the soft sand, her right flipper glowing pearly white.

"You idiots," muttered Skitty, barrel-rolling to the left as the attack grazed past her right cheek. The pink feline thanked her lucky stars when a stream of bubbles flew over her head and hit Pikachu instead. Her less fortunate partner, on the other hand, yelped at the stinging sensation in his right eyes. Small bolts of energy flew from his body, raining down around both of them like small, malfunctioning yellow fireworks.

"Oi! Stop that, you blistering idiot!"

But just as Rosa readied for another attack, an ear-piercing screech sent her cowering to the ground with a headache. This was soon followed by a sharp pain across her back, as Aipom's sneak attacks gave his teammates a chance to recover. Tasting the sand for the second time, the Piplup got up, wincing as she tried to balance herself.

"Hey Skit, let's try our special trick!" Aipom called out.

Skitty muttered something in annoyance before shoving Pikachu to her left. Blinking furiously from the ordeal the yellow rat managed to recompose himself, just in time to join Aipom in a series of ululations.

"Oooooooolaolsololalo…"

The Piplup furrowed her brows. _What on earth—?_

"Now!" commanded Skitty.

Like a group of tribesmen, the three Pokémon began circling around their victim, their feet alternated between a stomp and a careful tread. Rosa looked on from the centre. She tried to keep all her opponents in her sight, but found it difficult to keep up. Worse, the chanting from her opponents was making it hard for Rosa to concentrate on their body language. The skills she learnt at the training dojo had not prepared her for this.

"Thou shall not escape from us, thou shall not escape from us…"

_What's going on?! Careful now…_

The chanting grew from a monotonous, soft tone.

"Thou shall not escape from us…"

As Rosa slowly spun around in circles, their voice grew louder with much more dominance. Someone started the throat-singing again.

"Thou shall not escape from us…"

_What do I do?!_

And louder…

"Shall… not… escape…"

A cacophony of chants and wails surrounded her.

"Escape… from…"

_My head hurts…_

"US!"

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, Aipom disappeared and stood in his place was Pikachu, and Skitty, who was standing at Rosa's right, vanished into thin air, only to be replaced by Aipom. In confusion, Rosa began to panic as she shook her head side to side, desperately to see where Skitty had disappeared.

And then Rosa saw her, standing a few metres in front of her. Gasping in surprise she took a step forward, but in that one second, it had switched to Pikachu again.

_What—_

_Pikachu… Aipom… Pikachu again… Skitty…_

_Skitty!_

_No, it turned to Aipom! I can't keep doing this…_

Fuming, the Piplup took a deep breath, had one last glance at Pikachu (or was it Aipom?) before closing her eyes. Coming out with a shrilling scream herself, the stream of bubbles began to expand out in swirls as Rosa spun around, until it formed a large circle under centripetal force. Viewing from above, the beach looked as if some alien had made a single, blue crop circle with their UFO.

After several revolutions, and with her head dizzy from the twirling, Rosa finally stopped. She toppled over from the lack of balance and opened her eyes. To her delight she saw, in front of her, Skitty and Aipom lying motionless side by side. Aipom's eyes were closed.

"F-finally…" she uttered, "N-no so tough now, are you? Ow, my head…"

Stumbling forward, she reached her two unconscious victims and tried to pull the gemstone from Skitty.

"Damn… why did she have to do that…?" muttering in frustration, Rosa started unwinding the string from the feline. She barely got past the first winding when, suddenly...

"Blarrrrgh!"

...Skitty's scare tactic scored an accurate hit.

"Aaaaaaaah!"

"Not, so, fast!" the leader's front limb swung back and forth, landing successive hits on her victim's face, "And this one for good measure!"

Skitty's tail swung around and caught Rosa in the stomach, sending her flying into the pitiful remains of her sand sculpture.

"Go for it, comrade!" Aipom, who had 'recovered' from 'fainted state', gave Pikachu a friendly pat on the back. A bit stupid really, as the monkey had accidentally hit him too hard, causing him to fall over.

"Do you MIND?" His partner let off some static in protest.

"Just get on with it!" was the reply.

Seizing his chance, he began focusing as he scrunched his eyes; the red pouches on both his cheeks began to crackle with sparks. Rosa never had a chance to recover as a charge of electricity shot out of Pikachu's back. Crying out in pain, she felt the shock flew through her like quick poison, imposing movement on her head, body and limbs.

_No…!_

Skitty's tackle was the last thing she saw, before she was sent facing down into the sand. Rosa tried to get up, but no matter how many times she told herself to move, her body just won't obey her.

A triumphant Aipom strolled over, peering down at her like a tyrant, "Ha! That'll teach you to mess with Team CBE!" he warned.

"Because we're _cute but evil!__"_ Pikachu called out.

"Yeah!"

"Alright! That's enough, you two," shouted Skitty, tossing the gemstone up and down, "Huh, that Bubble attack was unexpected of you… but not impressive enough, dear," she plodded at the Piplup's motionless body, "Well, looks like we better go hide this gem somewhere so no one can accuse us of anything. Come on, let's go."

The trio walked off triumphantly.

A minute or two has passed, before Rosa felt her muscles loosening back to their original state. She slid her flipper in the sand and found her ability to move again. Slowly, the Piplup sat up and rubbed her head, her heart still thumping as if it was a drum at a tribal campfire.

Taking a deep breath, she steadied herself on the sand, her eyes frantically searching for any presence of Team CBE. As the gravity of her situation began to sink in she took quick paces in an attempt to broaden her view, but to her disappointment, all she could find were three set of footprints leading towards the cave in the distance.

"Y-y-you cowards…COWARDS! I hope you rot in hell! I…" Rosa ran forward and took a handful of sand, throwing them at the cave before falling into a slump again. The pleasant afternoon sun from earlier now burned at her cheek, worsening the stings from the Doubleslap. The wind did nothing to help cool them.

"Oh… what am I going to do?" Even if she did manage to run into Team CBE in the cave, she knew she would be greatly outnumbered again. Her grandmother can probably defeat the three scoundrels with her eyes closed, but she couldn't go to her now – this morning she had told Rosa she was going to Apple Woods to harvest Perfect Apples, and won't be back until dusk. Maybe she could take the first suggestion and go to the police?

_Oh, no. The noticeboard said they're closed today for a trainee excursion! Maybe I should ask a shopkeeper… someone… anyone!_

A tearful Rosa walked forward for a few steps, before breaking into a blind run. The combination of crying and lost judgment was never a good idea for navigation, and it didn't take long before the Piplup tripped over a rock, causing her to topple over.

"Stupid rock!" Rosa wailed as she turned around, releasing her anger by kicking the rock twice, "Get out of my way!"

"Ow! Stop it…" a voice moaned.

At the sound of the voice, Rosa immediately stopped with the waterworks. _Rocks don't talk! _She thought. _Wait, was I kicking at a Geodude? Those Pokémon always like to make themselves look like rocks… but they hate being near the water! So…_

Eyes widening in horror at the 'rock' she just kicked, the Piplup opened her beak... unleashing a scream loud enough to rival a banshee.

* * *

Author's notes:

In case if anyone was wondering what the hell Team CBE was doing during the battle, it was Baton Pass from Skitty. I thought I should turn one of the less popular moves into something useful - meaning being creative with how they're going to do it. As for the two trails of energy from Pikachu and Aipom earlier on, Pikachu was using Quick Attack and Aipom just a normal barging attack.

Oh, as for why Pikachu wasn't iconically shouting his own name while launching Thundershock (Yes, Thundershock not Thunderbolt. I'm not going to have Team CBE – or any of the protagonists – too overpowered at the moment), I didn't think it flows well with the rest of the writing so I left it out.


	3. Chapter 2 - The Meeting

Chapter 2.

This is shorter than the previous one, but then again, it's the 'meet-the-human' chapter, so there's nothing flashy or fancy about it...

* * *

Rosa gave off her loudest scream ever before stopping suddenly, taking several deep breaths to calm herself. Shaking her head in disbelief, she knelt down to study the "rock" in front of her.

It was a Pokémon, alright – but it's not a Geodude – at least, there hasn't been any knowledge of Geodude that look like strange orange lumps of fur with bright yellow bits sticking out from them. Oddly enough, the unconscious chick had black feathers interspersed with their mostly yellow wing, which set this one apart from the rest of the species. Still, the Piplup was no stranger to weird features on Pokémon – one of the Kecleon shopkeepers in town had a grandfather with purple skin, and she had once seen a Zangoose with pink zigzags on their body.

_Oh, poor Torchic._ A wave of sympathy washed over Rosa. _I really shouldn't have done that…_

"Urrrk…"

The groans caused the Piplup to jump back in shock. _She's not dead! Oh, thank goodness._ Rosa thought, relieved. She quickly walked over to Torchic and poked at her sides, instilling an annoyed grunt from the stirring creature.

_Huh, her fur is still damp. Oh well, the sun will dry her up._

"Don't… do that…"

"Sorry!" shouted Rosa, "Um… y-you're still alive, okay?! C-can you open your eyes?"

"It stings… to open…" the Torchic's brows moved up and down. She continued to mutter inaudibly, scrunching her eyes tightly as she did so. Slowly, Rosa slid her flipper underneath the Torchic's body and helped the semi-conscious Pokémon sit up. Using her foot, she kicked up some sand to make a small hill for the orange chick to lean on.

"I-is that better?" Rosa patted her patient's back, "You're going to be fine... just relax," she said in a soothing voice.

"Stop…"

"Huh?"

"Stop… stop!" she continued, now shaking her head. To Rosa's horror, she saw the Torchic's cheeks began to bulge, "I think I'm about to—!"

"Waaait! Don't—"

Rosa could never finish her sentence as the Torchic began throwing up in front of her. Panicking, the Piplup scrambled away to avoid being hit by the vomit. Meanwhile the Torchic gave a few coughs, accidentally breathing out sparks of ember along the way. Trying to catch her breath she inhaled deeply for a few seconds. Her face looked pale.

Cautiously, Rosa approached the Torchic, "Are… are you okay?" she asked in a tiny voice.

"Yeah, I'm f-fine now," she said, "T-thanks for *cough* helping me. S-sorry, I had this _huge_ headache, it-it's a bit better now… urgh."

"Can you open your eyes?"

"It still stings when I—" she coughed out a ball of flame this time, incinerating the vomit from earlier, "S-sorry, when I try to open them, hold on…"

"Do you want any—?"

"Oh, no, no, no," Rosa saw the Torchic blinking furiously, tears running down her eyes, "Ack… I think that's all the dirt gone, but I'll leave them closed for a few moments just in case. Say… w-what happened to me?"

"Um, well… I found you washed up on the beach here," she explained as she busied herself in cleaning up the mess, "I'm not sure what happened to you, though!"

"Washed up on the beach, eh?" the Torchic furrowed her brows, as if she was concentrating on a hard homework question, "Strange… I don't remember being near the water before this…"

"Really?"

With her body tilting backwards like a roly-poly, the Torchic shook her head, "Nope... I was sure I wasn't near any water before this, even with this headache. Now it's making me dizzy…"

"Wait! Don't fall asleep yet! Can you remember anything beforehand?"

Again the Torchic's head swung from side to side, "I was… talking with some boys, I think. It-it's so weird. I have no idea how I got here – huh! I-I think my eyes are okay now!"

"Oh, that's great to hear!"

"Yeah, I know. They say your eyes are the windows to the world—"

The Torchic stopped talking when she saw Rosa, who was patting her back, "I'm so glad that you're—"

"Waaah!"

"W-what's wrong?"

"Is… is this some sort of sick joke?!" the Torchic babbled, aghast at the sight in front of her.

"Joke?" she reiterated, a hint of concern in her voice. Rosa took a step closer to the Torchic, "I don't get—"

"Just… just stay away from me, freaky penguin thing!"

"I'm only trying to help!" Rosa explained, sounding a bit hurt, "There's no need to insult me like that!"

"You're just an illusion!" the orange chick rebutted, as she frantically shuffled away from the Piplup, "You're just a stupid illusion playing with my mind… you're not real!"

"I can assure you, it is r—"

_"Don't saying that!"_ the Torchic screamed, "This is probably a weird dream I'm hav—"

She was interrupted when Rosa hurled a pile of sand at her face. Annoyed, she blinked furiously, trying to get the foreign objects out of her eyes.

"Aah! What was that for?"

"Is it still a dream now?!" said Rosa, annoyed at the ignorance of this orange chick, "For the love of Arceus - what on earth were you rambling on about?"

"On, you want to know what's wrong?" said the Torchic as she continued blinking, "I-I'll tell you what's wrong—why am I, a human, talking to an imaginary creature like you?!"

"I'm not an imaginary—wait," Rosa stopped, her mind processing the piece of information that was blurted out, "Did... did you just said you were human?"

"What do you mean, I was a human?" she replied back impatiently. Her vision had cleared up again. _"I AM a human."_

Rosa gawked at Torchic for a few seconds, her beak open in disbelief. _This Torchic sure is weird…_

"S-stop looking at me that way," said the Torchic, "You're making me feel uncomfortable!"

"If you are a human," Rosa questioned slowly, "Then… why do you look like a Pokémon? Or more specifically, why do you look like a Torchic?"

It was Torchic's turn to be gobsmacked, "What do you mean, I'm a Pokémon? They only exist in books!"

"No they don't!" Rosa retorted, "You've got it the wrong way around!"

"Do I, in anyway, look like a Pokémon to you?" she fired back.

"Well, take a good look at yourself then!" the Piplup said indignantly, her flipper gesturing at the orange chick, "Honestly!"

Glancing down the Torchic saw, to her astonishment, a pair of talons being presented to her. Slowly, she got up from her sitting position, carefully steadying herself with her newly discovered feet. Her head whipped around several times as she examined the orange feathers around her body and the yellow-and-black wings poking out under her head. Blowing on her wing feathers, she watched as they fluttered from the artificial gust of wind. Glancing forward, the Torchic gave a little yelp when she saw her shadow on the sand – it was shaped as if she was wearing eagle's legs for a costume, with a large three-pointed decoration attached on her head.

"Oh, my…" she trembled, "I don't...oh! D-do you have a mirror with you?"

"There's a small rock pool over that side," Rosa put her flipper around the Torchic, trying to guide her, "Here, let me show you—"

"Don't, touch me," the Torchic sniped back with irritation.

"Fine," the Piplup said haughtily, "If that's what you want..."

The water at the rock pool was clear enough to cast a reflection for those who believed beauty is only skin deep. Today, however, the rock pool was used for the Torchic's identity check, as she gasped in horror at her slightly warped reflection. Instead of the brown hair and dimples she had been expecting, her face was round and completely covered in orange. The three-pointed decoration thing turned out to be a crest which sat on top of her head – orange in the middle with a thick yellow outline, as if it was a flame. Her eyes were two black beads with white irises. The place where her mouth should be was replaced by an elongated yellow beak.

"Oh no," she paced around, muttering in an astounded voice, "I can't believe it… what is this? This is all real and… and… waah!" The Torchic slipped on the rocks. Talons are not very good at gripping on wet surfaces.

"Are you okay?" Rosa caught her by her wings, and this time, the orange chick did not protest. "By the way, my name is Rosalind, Rosa for short. I'm a Piplup. What about you?"

"Name's Jenny," said the Torchic carelessly, still deep in thoughts, "But that's not important… how the heck did I end up here as a… whatever Pokémon I happen to be?"

"You're a Torchic," said Rosa helpfully.

"Yeah… how did I end up here as a Torchic when I'm supposed to be a human…?" Jenny continued to mutter blankly as she walked back to the sand, "Maybe… maybe I was playing games in a virtual world that has really good effects which makes you feel that everything around you is real—oww!"

The Piplup was glaring at her, her left flipper held out in front of her eyes.

"What the hell was that for?" Jenny yelled angrily, feeling the burning sensation on her right cheek.

"Look," Rosa said in a serious tone, as she pressed down firmly on Jenny's wing, "I don't know what you're talking about, but it seems like you lost your marbles from being in the water and you kept thinking you're a human. Now that's quite understandable but you don't need to—"

"I did NOT lose my marbles!" the Torchic shook Rosa off forcefully. She couldn't believe it: this penguin thought she was talking gibberish! "My head is working perfectly fine! Fifty-six plus eight is sixty-four! Don't you understand?" she continued on irately, "This... this isn't supposed to happen to me!"

Growing tired of the Torchic's impoliteness, Rosa threw her flippers in the air and shot back, "Oh, alright! Fine! You think YOU have problems?" she pointed at the Jenny accusingly, causing the Torchic to jump back in surprise, "Go ahead! _Talk to someone who cares!_ I can't _believe_ I'm wasting time with a-a lost case like you when I-I should be… oh…" tears were swimming in her eyes again as the Piplup remembered what happened before their encounter, and an overwhelming sense of dread enveloped her mind, "No, no, no! W-why did I even… help you… in the first place…!"

Seeing the blue penguin crying calmed down the orange chick. _Oh no. Look what you just did, Jenny, you silly girl. This is almost like the time when you had to deal with that crying toddler in childcare, when you broke their favourite mug… talk to her!_

"Erm... w-what's wrong?" she asked, lowering her voice a bit.

"D-doesn't concern you…" said the Piplup, turning away. Her body still shaking from the anger and despair felt at her loss.

"Well… now it does," Jenny sighed. She walked around Rosa, her eyes examining the Piplup more closely, "Huh, your cheek is swelling a bit, and I can see some scratches along your back. What happened?"

An awkward silence followed.

"You were beaten up by some thugs, weren't you?" the Torchic concluded.

"Why… why should you care?" Rosa stuttered. She started to walk away, "I-I was going to look for-for help anyway…"

"H-hey! Wait... stop…"

The Piplup continued on.

_Don't let her get away, now-!_

"STOP!" Jenny shouted, her talons shifting on the spot, "Stop! Alright, Rosa! Look, I-I'm sorry for yelling at you like that… I-I admit, I'll admit it! I got too carried away with my situation, okay?" She paused for a second, allowing Rosa to turn around before continuing quietly, "Forgive me, please?"

The Piplup peered at Jenny from behind her flippers, two trails of tears ran across her face. On the opposite side, the ends of the Torchic's beak lifted to formed a small smile, her round eyes locked onto Rosa's.

_"Please."_

Slowly, the penguin nodded in reply. Her foot began to shift.

"Now, mind telling me what happened?" she asked.

"Three Pokémon calling themselves Team… Team CBE, they stole my… my gemstone," Rosa sniffled. "My… my grandma told me to look... look after it but I didn't. Now my grandma… will… will be very mad at me and I… I..."

_Oh god._ _Why do bullies even exist? They do nothing all day except terrorising people… and Pokémon, it seems._

"They are just bullies," said Jenny, her mind searching for the right words, "Um… you… you have to stand up to them! Get your family heirloom back! Yeah! Isn't that right?"

"No! It's impossible…" Rosa whimpered, as the Torchic looked on with a confused expression, "I… already tried that… look what happened to me! Three against one is… is just…"

Suddenly, she put her head on Jenny's wing and start wailing again. The Torchic nearly fell over from the Piplup's reaction.

"Okay! Okay!" Jenny stammered, "Rosa, please! Look, I'll…" she paused for a second before adding, "I'll help you. But please… can you get off me first?"

"Sorry," Rosa mumbled and wiped her tears away, she looked at her, "Did you really… really meant what you just said?"

"Well—"

"I… I don't know… I was going back to town… to look for help…"

"How long does it take to walk there?"

"Fifteen minutes. Ten if… you choose to run, I… I think."

"That's too long!" Jenny exclaimed, shaking her head, "By the time we get back they'll all get away with it! That's it, I'm helping you."

"J-Jenny?"

"Yeah?"

"Did… you really mean that?"

Jenny sighed exasperatedly, "This is the second time you asked me!"

"Right, sorry..." Rosa mumbled, "But are you sure you'll be able to fight them? I mean… you just recovered from drowning and all…"

"Hey! Two is always better than one, right?" said Jenny, "Besides, I'll just punch their guts out when I see them!"

The Piplup blinked as she took another glance at the Torchic in front of her. Her eyes were shifting side-to-side, as if she was searching for something.

"Umm… Jenny?"

"What is it?"

"You don't… have arms," said Rosa, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

The Torchic glanced at her downy feathers, an embarrassed smile etched on her face, "Uh… oops! I-I mean, I'll kick and scratch them, then! Did you know, I once took down two boys by myself!"

"R-really?" Rosa gasped. _She must be a really good fighter, then! I can't even take down two Pokémon by myself!_

"That's right!" Jenny declared, "And you better get yourself together, I'm sure whoever this Team CBE is will start laughing at you, if you tried challenging them looking like this."

"Okay," Rosa wiped her face and took a deep breath.

"Now," said Jenny as she started walking around Rosa, her eyes staring at her as if she was a soldier in training, "You want your gemstone back, yes?"

Rosa muttered something under her breath.

"Louder!" said Jenny in a commanding voice as she appeared in front of her, causing the Piplup to flinch a little, "I can't hear you!"

"Yes, I do."

"Oh come on, scaredy-cat," the Torchic started mocking her, "You have to do much better than that—"

"Y-YES!" this time, the blue penguin yelled. A flock of Wingull that had just landed on the rocks flew off, their squawks of protest echoed along the beach.

"And some dirty, rotten thieves called Team CBE stole it, am I correct?"

"YES!"

"You and I are going to get it back, _you hear me?!"_

Rosa turned to Jenny and gave her a firm nod.

"That's the spirit!" said the Torchic, "So where did this Team CBE head off to after they stole your gem?"

"They went to over there," said Rosa, pointing to the cave in the distance.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's move!"

Rosa smiled with relief. _Wow, Arceus… this must be my lucky day today._ She thought, watching as her newly-found helper jogged beside her with a determined look on her face. _The whole 'I'm a human' thing is a bit weird, though. She seemed pretty convinced about it! Oh well, if we succeed we'll sort it out later…_

_If we succeed... we might fail..._

_No! This isn't the time for doubt! Jenny said it herself – she defeated two boys once! _The Piplup shook her head frantically. _Even if she didn't, the way she was talking to me before would've probably scared off Pikachu. Surely…_

"So is this it?" the loud voice snapped Rosa back from her thoughts. Jenny was eyeing the entrance of Beach Cave with great curiosity. The ground was covered in wet sand, with semi-dry seaweed, shells and broken corals scattered haphazardly all over it. The wall was a greyish-purple colour, with green sea plants poking out from various cracks on the surface. Anything beyond thirty feet from the entrance was unidentifiable by naked eyes due to a lack of lighting.

"They couldn't have picked a better place for it, could they…" said Jenny.

"No, they couldn't," Rosa turned to her acquaintance. She could have sworn she heard a hint of tentativeness in her helper's voice.

"Well, it's only a cave!" the Torchic remarked, smiling perhaps a bit too cheerfully, "There is nothing to be afraid of!"

"I know that, I've been here once for training—hey! Watch your steps! The corals can be quite sharp—"

But the Torchic was already skipping past the large boulder on the edge of their thirty feet vision boundary. Rosa was about to follow suit when, suddenly, her helper dropped out of her view.

_"Jenny—!"_

* * *

...aaand cliffhanger. Damn it, next chapter is going to be harder to rewrite due to copious amount of explanation and battle scene descriptions. *facepalm*

Also, if anyone is questioning the transition from her loss of gemstone to helping the Torchic, I think it makes sense for Rosa to be temporarily distracted from her loss. I mean - what would you do if somebody suddenly turns up in front of you needing help? Assuming you're not completely heartless you would try and help by initiating first aid or call the ambulance, right?


	4. Chapter 3 - Beach Cave Showdown!

Chapter 3.

I hope it's not too long...ehehe.

* * *

"Jenny—!"

A worried Piplup rushed over to the boulder and looked down. There was a one metre drop to the floor of Beach Cave. Now that wouldn't have been a problem if you have sufficient height to jump down without jarring your ankle, or somehow levitate in mid-air using psychic powers or workable wings. However, for a Pokémon with a height of forty centimetres and small, underdeveloped wings, it can be a very different story all together.

"Are you alright?" Rosa shouted, "I'll be down there in a second!"

"Ahh… my right foot is a bit sore, but I think I'll be fine," said the rather disgruntled Torchic, looking up at her partner, "I was totally not expecting that."

"You mean your talon? Well, I told you to look out for things, didn't I?"

"Oh, don't start, Rosa," said Jenny casually. She steadied herself up. "Or you'll start to sound like my mother."

The Piplup was about to land when she heard the Torchic's words. Flinching, she felt her feet hit the cold, hard ground and almost fell on her behinds.

"Don't say that!" Rosa sniped back, "That was—"

"Right, so is that where we were supposed to go?"

"Jenny!" the Torchic jumped at Rosa's voice, "I was talking! Don't interrupt me!"

"Okay! Okay! What is it?" said Jenny hurriedly, "Don't get mad at me!"

The Piplup picked up a pebble beside her. "Just… don't say such things about your Mum, okay?" she lowered her voice, "Anyway, let's go."

Out of words to say, Jenny snapped her beak shut and began trudging behind the Piplup, their feet splashing at the puddles of water dotted around their path. Neither of them said anything for a while, and the Torchic took the opportunity to look around her environment a bit more. The walls retained the same greyish-purple colour palette as the walls at the entrance, if not slightly darker due to a lack of exposure. Small rays of sunlight filtered through from some cracks on the ceiling of the cave, aiding them with the navigation through the tunnel. That was not always the case however, as some sections of the tunnel were completely devoid of light, forcing the pair to rely on their sensory abilities to tread through it with fear and uncertainty hanging over their heads.

After ten minutes of walking, the girls came across a large cavern with sufficient lighting to see everything in a five metre radius. Relieved that she was finally out of the darkness, Jenny sprinted forward.

"Oh my goodness, now we have light!" the Torchic said loudly, while the Piplup whipped her head around in alarm, "Rosa, what kind of place is this?"

"Beach Cave is a mystery dungeon," said Rosa hastily, "And please, keep your voice down or you'll attract the enemies!"

"Mystery… dungeon?" asked Jenny, "That's a funny name."

"Ssh! Mystery dungeons are places that changes its layout constantly. Don't tell me you've never heard of them."

"Well, no…"

"I'll explain later!" said Rosa as she tried to drag Jenny into one of the tunnels, "Let's move before we—oh."

"Before what?"

"That," the Piplup said in a flat voice, "Damn it, we were discovered…"

With her eyes following the direction Rosa was pointing, Jenny soon found herself face-to-face with a lump of pink coral. Upon closer inspection, however, the Torchic was surprised to discover it had eyes and feet. Without warning, the Corsola jumped at the Piplup. The impact sent both of them to the ground.

"Rosa!"

"Jenny! Quickly!" Rosa shoved the Corsola at her partner's direction. At the sight of the coral Pokémon advancing towards her, Jenny squirmed back towards the cavern wall, unsure of her next move.

"W-what am I supposed to do?"

"You can fight, can't you?!"

"Oh! Um…" the Torchic lifted up her left talon sluggishly, but her indecision had given the Corsola great advantage. The next thing she knew, she had been slammed into the hard wall, gaining a new bruise for the back of her head.

Moaning at the throbbing sensation, Jenny tried to stand up but ended up stumbling forward. She crashed headfirst to the ground and was greeted by an earthy taste in her beak. Biting her tongue, the Torchic managed to scramble back up the second time, her eyes blinking frantically to clear her vision. However the enemy was unforgiving – just as she was beginning to recover, she saw the pink coral again, charging towards her with malicious intents. Panicked thoughts rushed through Jenny's head as she began screeching out indecipherable noises like a vulture, trying to scare away her enemies.

The Corsola appeared baffled for a second, but the confusion soon turned to laughter as he smirked at the pathetic Torchic.

It was a big mistake. Distracted at Jenny's clownish actions, the Corsola failed to notice the figure which had crept up behind him. The Torchic watched with amazement as a flash of white energy danced before her eyes, and the pink coral was sent flying into the air. With a loud 'clunk' he hit the wall and bounced once along the ground, his eyes closed.

Rosa stood a few feet away, panting at her own effort. A bruise was visible on her left flipper, giving her the impression she had somehow managed to knock out the Corsola like a boxer without their gloves.

"R-Rosa! Y-you killed him…"

"Don't worry. He's not dead, Jenny," said the Piplup, "He just fainted. He'll be alright in a few minutes, now let's move!"

"R-right!" the duo turned left into the tunnel again, but Jenny's mind was still whirring with what she had seen. "But Rosa—"

"He's going to recover from the attack eventually! In fact, he probably won't even remember having the battle in the first place," said Rosa as she kept pushing the Torchic forward, "Move! The Pokémon who lives in this cave are guarded by the cave's magic anyway. The only thing the cave won't protect is the visitors – us!"

"O-okay…" Jenny nodded, digesting this information.

"Keep walking! Say, what happened with you and the Corsola earlier? I thought you said you fought two boys once!"

"Rosa, the boys were human—"

"I thought we were way past this 'human' thing!"

Torchic gasped, "A-are you saying you still don't believe my story?" she said indignantly, "I don't believe it!"

"Well—"

"Stop!" Jenny stepped in the Piplup's way, "Look, there's no way we'll be able to fight together if you don't believe me!" she said angrily, "You just saw me with that… that Corsol thing or whatever! I'm not used to my new body yet so I don't know how to fight as a-a Torchic!"

The tunnel became so quiet, the only thing they could hear were the dripping water from a cavern metres away. Rosa stared back at Jenny, adrenaline still rushing through her body as she tried to massage her bruised flipper.

_Why can't you just believe what I said, Rosa_? Jenny thought, her emotions rising and falling like every breath she took. She wasn't sure if it was her personality or some kind of biological process Torchic have, but she wished the Piplup in front of her could stop being the ignorant Pokémon she was, and accept her words. That way, they could both move on and finish the mission they were set out to do.

After several tense moments, the blue penguin finally cut through the silence, "A-are you saying that you have no experience whatsoever with fighting?" she concluded, trying to keep her voice steady.

"I did have self-defence lessons as a human, but as a Torchic… no."

The Piplup rubbed her face, frustrated at the Torchic's incompetence. "You also said you don't know what mystery dungeons are," she noted.

"Correct."

"Arceus… now what are we going to do?" she said in a dejected voice.

"Do what?"

"How are we going to get my gemstone back, when you don't even know how to fight?" Rosa retorted, holding up her flipper, "Wait, you don't even know how mystery dungeon works! What on earth were you thinking when you decided to help me?"

"Hey! I-I thought the cave was just a cave!" Jenny protested, "A-anyway, you want your gemstone back, right? Come on, at least give me a chance to get used to this new body."

Shaking her head in disbelief, the Piplup answered, "Jenny, physical combat is not something you can master in several minutes."

"I didn't say I need to master it – and besides, I'm going to see if I can use what I've learnt as a human and apply it to fighting."

Oh, alright then," said Rosa sceptically, "Show me."

"What? Now?"

"There's a Shellos in front of you right now, go on."

Jenny whipped her head around, watching as a sea slug crawled slowly towards them. On its head were two knobs which resembled horns, and they were blue with white tips. The same blueness covered the whole of the slug's back, along with two flap-like protrusions with yellow edges on them. Its underside was green and slimy, and Jenny could vaguely see a trail of mucus behind her opponent.

"You want me to fight that pathetic snail thing? Sure…" the Torchic smirked and quickly raised her right talon, surprising herself as she discovered the flexibility in her legs. She ran forward and kicked at the sea slug, who slid backwards to absorb the impact. But just when Jenny thought it was all over, the Shellos hurled several piles of smelly mud from out of nowhere. Yelping, the Torchic tried to spin around and avoid further injury but to no avail – the mud flew at her like fresh paintballs out of a gun, splattering against her feathers and bruising the skin underneath. Rosa, who was watching the Torchic's demonstration with some curiosity, suddenly hurled the pebble in her flipper. A pained screech from the Shellos told the penguin she had hit her target, while her partner shook and spat, trying to get the nasty mud out of her feathers and beak.

Doing a little skip forward, Jenny kicked her left talon forward and swung it in an arc, sending out a burst of white energy from the tips. As it made contact she could feel them tearing at her enemy's skin. Unable to resist any more attacks the Shellos slumped to the ground in unconsciousness, leaving the former human girl to ponder, with a mixture of fear and amazement, the phenomenon which had just happened.

"That Mud Slap looked nasty... are you alight?" Rosa examined the scene in front of her, "Looks like you're starting to find your fighting skills, though."

"I-I'm not even sure what happened…" said Jenny, "Ow... I've got a few more bruises but I'll be okay..."

"That was the move Scratch, I believe," the Piplup explained, carefully skipping over the unconscious sea slug, "It looked more powerful than your first attack, and there were energies coming off from your talons."

Nodding in acknowledgement, Jenny mumbled, "Uh-huh… yeah, this is so weird," she looked around the narrow tunnel they were in. The lack of space and the stagnant smell of the mud were starting to amplify her headache again, "L-let's keep going. Wait, why are you standing over there?"

"W-well, sorry Jenny," Rosa backed away, "It's just that… you're starting to smell like a… a Trubbish."

Feeling insulted, Jenny took a few sniff at her feather and immediately regretted it – the smell reminded her of lawn fertilisers left out on a hot summer day.

_Note to self: get a proper bath after this and never insult sea slugs, ever again…_

The end of the tunnel turned out to be a spiralling staircase which led them deeper into the cave. By now the walls were no longer lit by the sporadic sunlight, but with curious blue crystals embedded into the walls and the occasional torchlights.

"So," Rosa started, as she felt her way down to the cavern, "About this human thing—"

Stopping midway in front of her, Jenny replied in a grouchy voice, "You still don't believe me."

"No, I'm sitting on the fence for this," Rosa shook her head, "Please! I-it's just… with the circumstance you're in, you're a fire type Pokémon and water is supposed to affect you in a very bad way!" at that statement, Jenny's eyebrows rose in response, "I would've thought your near-drowning was the most reasonable idea behind your ramblings, but you were so convinced by the idea of being a human! Also, from the way you fought and the lack of knowledge on mystery dungeons… I really don't know what to believe anymore."

"Right," the Torchic sighed and continued walking. _Well, there's some improvement…_

"You know… I don't really get you, Jenny."

"What?"

"Just… when we were outside, you sounded so confident about the whole thing it gave me so much hope and determination! But now…"

"Are you saying that you've lost your hope and determination, because I wasn't some macho Pokémon guy who defends the weak as a daily job?"

"Well… not really," the Piplup was suddenly reminded of her grandmother's lessons to be more tactful, "It's just that you words sounded so powerful and convincing! How did you do it?"

"Oh, that… I actually learnt got the idea from reading off a booklet, actually," she rolled her eyes upwards, as if pondering something, "Damn it, I can't remember what it was called, but a student mentor gave it to me on the first day of high school."

Catching the puzzled looks from the blue penguin, Jenny continued, "I'm not sure if Pokémon have high schools here… but anyway, that booklet was supposed to teach me tips on dealing with bullies and standing up for myself and others. I was only trying to help."

"And this… this _booklet_ taught you it's alright to help others, even though you lack the ability to do so?" said the Piplup, astonished. _What an odd society she lived in. _She thought.

"Rosa! I did take down two human boys once," the Torchic replied, "I'm not completely helpless when it comes to self-defence, you know."

"You keep saying that. What actually happened on that day?"

"Well, I was only supposed to tell them off, but I became so frustrated by their attitude, I ended up punching them both in their face… wait, it could've been their stomach… doesn't matter. Either way, I got into so much trouble with the adults, because their injuries was serious enough for them to missed school for three consecutive days, ehe…" she smiled meekly, recording the incident, "The teacher gave me two weeks of lunch detention, and I lost at least two months' worth of pocket money."

"Ouch," Rosa couldn't remember the last time she was banned from having her allowance. Two months without pocket money meant two months without candied Pecha Berries for her. _That sounds like a bad thing._ She thought.

"Honestly, though… when you said caves, I thought it was only a matter of getting in here and confronting Team CBE, I didn't think the cave would be like _this_." Jenny sighed as her talon kicked at a large, round berry on the ground, "Well, hello… somebody left a blueberry here."

"Oh!" Rosa hurried forward, picking up the blue object before it rolled into one of the tunnels, "That's an Oran Berry! Here…"

The Piplup split the Oran Berry in half, allowing the olive-green juice drip to the ground. She ate her portion in one bite, before cleaning up the remaining juice on her flipper by wiping them on her beak. Jenny watched as the swelling on Rosa's cheek began to subside, until it was no longer visible.

"Try it!"

"Um… Rosa? Could you possibly come a bit closer?" said Jenny, watching as the Piplup stood two metres from her, holding out the piece Oran Berry with an outstretched flipper. She deadpanned, "C-come on, I know I don't smell like flower perfumes, but this is ridiculous."

Tentatively, Rosa covered her face with her free flipper and took few steps closer, allowing the Torchic to swallow her piece of the fruit. It tasted like a mixture of orange, apple and mango juice coming together in a mushy texture of flesh. Lifting her head, Jenny could feel the throbbing pain at the back of her head began to lessen in strength, and the bruises on her body was slowly disappearing. She smiled in appreciation.

"How do you feel?" Rosa asked as they set off into a tunnel to their right.

"Better than before, thanks! So this type of berry has healing properties?"

"That's right. I suggest you keep a lookout for any interesting items on cavern floors. There are often berries and seeds left by other Pokémon, which we can use to guide us through this cave."

Jenny nodded, "Ah, I see. So this is a bit like those survivor TV shows where people forage for food and materials—"

She stopped talking when Rosa greeted her with another confused look on her face.

"TV… shows? What are those?"

"Moving pictures on a screen," Jenny said quickly, sighing as the Piplup maintained her perplexed expression, "N-never mind."

For the next few minutes, the duo spent most of their time walking and making decisions at crossroads in hushed voices. They've encountered a few more Shellos and two purple shellfish Pokémon called Shellder. Much to the dismay of the Torchic, the sight of the Shellder's appearance sent her screaming like a scared baby; their beady eyes and red tongue which poked out from the darkness of the shell reminded her of horror movies from the human world. Fear was soon reduced to apprehension however, when Jenny discovered that the Shellder found her equally frightening to fight against.

At least, the incident gave Rosa something to giggle about – until Jenny 'helpfully' reminded her how the Piplup had stepped on some seaweeds earlier and thought they were tentacles out to get her.

While the duo walked on, both managed to pick up some of the items Rosa had mentioned. The Piplup acquired a small sack of smooth grey rocks, which she described as Geo Pebbles. Jenny, on the other hand, picked up a reddish seed with walnut-like skin near the edge of a small pond. She was about to eat it, when the Piplup wrenched it out of her beak.

"Pah! W-what was that for?" the Torchic jumped back, almost falling into the water.

"Jenny, this is a Blast Seed!"

"So? Seeds are edible, right?"

"You're only supposed to eat it when you're battling an enemy! It makes you breathe out fire. Speaking of which," Rosa turned over the red seed several times, "You are a fire type…"

"Yes?"

"Can you use fire attacks?" asked Rosa, "I mean, so far I've only seen you using physical attacks."

"You want me to breath fire?" the Torchic reiterated the words in a tone which suggested the ridiculousness behind this idea, "I—no! I've never tried that!"

"Yes you have."

"Really? Since when?" Jenny demanded.

"When we were on the beach, and you were starting to wake up," rubbing her chin, the Piplup added, "You coughed out some ember from your mouth…"

"I was?" her partner said incredulously, "I thought I was trying to get rid of things stuck in my throat!"

"Why don't you give it a try?"

"T-try breathing fire?" she stared blankly at the dark cave wall on the opposite side of the pond. _Humans don't breathe fire!_ Even if they do, Jenny knew it had to take stuntmen or stuntwomen decades of experience to ensure they're not killed by swallowing the toxic fuel, burnt by fire blowing back at their face, or have their oesophagus inflamed by the extreme heat. However, she's no longer limited by the complexities of the human body – she's a Pokémon, and a fire-type at that. "R-right… so what do I do?"

"Well, I can attack with water bubbles, watch," facing the same direction, Rosa took a deep breath to summon the energy from deep within, focusing so that the background noises around her was soon reduced to a hum no louder than a mosquito's buzz. When she could feel the tingling sensation rising out from her throat she opened her beak, allowing the stream of bubbles to fly out and explode against the hard rock walls. To Jenny, it was as if somebody had used a microscope and magnified the process of popping hundreds of bubbles at one time.

"Wow."

"It's a matter of staying focused and summoning energy from my stomach. This is how I did my Bubbles attack," Rosa explained after exhaling, "I don't know if Ember attacks work the same way, though."

The Torchic blinked a few times, her eyes staring dully at the reflection on the water. Closing her eyes, she tried to do the same thing Rosa did – focusing and… summoning the energy, _wasn't it?_

But it was impossible – she was having a lot of trouble staying focused. Every time she willed for some energy to magically arise from her stomach she end up distracted by either her thoughts, or noise of dripping water from several feet away. After a whole minute of standing there like a stunned turkey, Jenny opened her eyes, frowning at the lack off success.

"It doesn't work?" asked Rosa.

"No, of course it doesn't," said Jenny stiffly, "Humans aren't supposed to breathe fire anyway—"

"You—are—a—Torchic," the Piplup shot back, "At least try coughing."

"Fine…"

Hacking a few fake coughs, the Torchic could not make anything come out of her beak, with the exception of saliva and spit. That is, until Rosa gave Jenny a strong pat on the back, the force brought out a couple of embers dancing in front of her eyes like the sparklers children play with during festival celebrations.

"See?" said Rosa, while Jenny watched with wide open eyes, "You've got it in you! You just need to work on the summoning," she stashed the Blast Seed in amongst the bag of Geo Pebbles, "Come on, we better get going."

Taking two more turns through the tunnels, Jenny and Rosa discovered a long series of steps. They were beige coloured like the mud on the road after heavy rain. Upon closer inspection the girl saw it was sand which covered the hard masonry underneath, and small footprints on them led to a brightly lit cavern on the bottom of the stairs.

"That's Pikachu's footprint," Rosa pointed at a set of indentions which looked like a long, slender leaf with three points, "And this is Aipom's. His footprint is more like an ellipse with a line through it."

"Oh! So we're here, then!" the Torchic said excitedly. Before Rosa could say anything, Jenny had already headed down. This cavern was not like the others they've seen so far – firstly, it had no ceiling, and jagged rocks twenty metres above them outlined the clear, blue sky that was providing the place with its unique lighting. Most of the floor was covered in wet sand, just like the beach outside. A natural cistern to her front was decorated with the rocks local to Beach Cave, and dark ferns which flourished through the cracks added a nice, green touch to the place.

"Jenny, what's that under your talons?"

Blinking, the Torchic temporarily pulled herself away from admiring the place, and looked down. Something blue and red gleamed, and a dirtied, plaited string was tangled on her claw. Jenny lifted up her right leg, taking the whole tangled mess along with it.

"We found it!" said Rosa, ecstatic at the discovery, "That's the gemstone! Gee, so much for a 'good hiding place'!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Jenny replied. She carefully balanced on one leg and shifted her talon towards Rosa, "Here, take it and let's go—"

"_Leaving so soon, are we?"_

The new voice made both girls pause, but it was soon cut short by Rosa's quick realisation. She snatched at the strings on Jenny's talon and ran, while her partner was thrown backwards by the force, her mind still processing the gravity of their situation…

"Aaaah!"

"Rosa!" sitting up, Jenny could see a flash of lightning bolt being ejected from behind that rock on her right. She stood and ran forward, trying to push the Piplup away, but a flash of purple later she found herself hitting the sand again.

"Well, well, well… I wasn't expecting you to come so far… _Rosalind_," Aipom's voice bounced off the cave walls, amplifying his dominance. The Torchic rolled her head and could briefly see a pair of yellow arms wrestling with Rosa's flippers, trying to get to the gemstone. One pulled to the left and the other, right. Jenny tried to help, but the purple monkey had her restrained by his tail and she could only watch as Pikachu's static electricity shot through the Piplup's flipper, forcing her to part with the family heirloom.

"S-so you're the two who stole her gem…" Jenny growled, while the purple tail loosened its grip and moved away. At the same time Rosa was slowly crawling back to her feet, her right flipper appeared to be rigid and unmoving.

"Where is Skitty?" the Piplup said in a stern voice, trying to sound as intimidating as possible, "Is she hiding, too?"

"Oh, she left ages ago," Jenny watched the yellow rodent cross his arms, "Had to go back to the guild and collect some rewards—"

"Shut it," the purple monkey nudged his teammate, "We stayed just in case you decided to show up, though…" the Torchic glared daggers at Aipom when he turned in her direction, "I wasn't expecting a helper."

"You two don't deserve that gemstone, now give it back to her," Jenny said angrily.

"B-be quiet, Torchic," Pikachu rebutted, "Don't say things you don't understand—"

"Ah! Allow me, my friend," Aipom help up his left arm while approaching Jenny, "I'm sorry but you have been misinformed, girl. We're only keeping the gem, because_ Miss Rosalind_ here owed us money."

Smirking, he could see the expression on Jenny's face transformed from anger to uncertainty.

"Don't listen to them, Jenny!" Rosa was shouting in her ear, "I never owe them anything! We agreed on the payment of a treasure chest, and now they're just being greedy!"

"The treasure chest only had one Wonder Gummi in it—"

"Wonder Gummi is one of the rarest types of Gummi out there!"

"You can't split a Gummi between three—"

"Okay! Be quiet, all of you!" the Torchic yelled, "You're starting to give me a headache!" She scrunched her eyes shut and took a deep breath. In her mind, she was trying to remember anything she had learnt about mediation, "J-just… look, maybe Rosa owed you money, maybe she didn't. But _you two_ – and this _Skitty_ – ganged up on her and that's just… really cowardly of you, in my opinion."

"Sorry, not in the mood for a lecture, especially not from you," Aipom's nose perked up, "I mean… eugh, have you been living with a family of Trubbish lately? They'd love to make you their own child."

"Ha, ha! Nice one, dude!" Pikachu added, tears of laughter rolling down his face, "We should call you Miss Manure, or She Who Must Not Be Smelt! Oh! How about The One All Skuntank Love To Mate With—"

"Excuse me?" Jenny could feel her temper flare up like a flame in a bonfire, "_Excuse me?_ Try smelling this, dirty rat!"

Spinning around, the Torchic used a rather amateurish style of roundhouse kick to swing her right talon at Pikachu. The flash of yellow in front of Pikachu's eyes, while it didn't hit him, frightened him enough to drop the gem. Seizing her chance Rosa tried diving on it, but not before Aipom's tail-hand came in between the object and its rightful owner.

Desperate times called for desperate measures. Still on the ground, the Piplup's flipper made a wild grab and found a stump-like object. It didn't take long before she launched herself forward, latching onto the purple monkey's leg like a parasite.

"Get—off!" Rosa's tight grip was cutting off the blood circulation on his left leg. With great effort Aipom swung his leg, dragging the unwanted luggage along the ground. The force swept away some of the sand, exposing the rocky terrain which hid underneath. She screamed as the roughness dug in and grazed her skin, the burning sensation made tears roll from her eyes. Meanwhile, the purple monkey cursed and spat at her. He tried lifting the leg and succeeded…

…but not before Rosa's weight made him lose balance. As he fell, all three of his hands flailed around wildly. Jenny watched in anticipation as the gemstone flew upwards in projectile motion, its final destination was a foot away from the natural cistern. As the adrenaline rushed into her leg she leapt over Rosa and Aipom, her eyes set on the prize.

"Oh no, you don't!"

"Wha—!" the yellow bolt Jenny saw from before now struck her, just as she stepped into a water puddle. She felt little pulses of pain struck throughout her body, while her ear heard nothing but popping noises. Collapsing, Jenny could feel the cold sweat on her back, and she wished the agonising sensations under her skin would go away.

"Not so tough, are you?" the yellow rodent loomed over her, one of his foot stepping deliberately on the Torchic's leg. Ignoring the strangled yelps from his opponent, he picked up the gem from behind her and stepped away. Jenny breathed a sigh of relief when the weight was removed from her leg, her vision was blurred but she could still make out the yellow outline which belonged to Pikachu. She tried to focus, but the headache was starting to strike again.

Just when she thought Pikachu had gone, the foot which connected with her face suggested otherwise. The Torchic cringed, trying to stifle her screams as the brunt force from the kick exploded through her skull. Jenny knew she had to do something, but what could she do? She couldn't remember learning anything about this type of situation from high school!

The pain from the Thundershock had receded, but now her feathers were greedily soaking up the water underneath her body. Jenny didn't like this - it made her feel like she was beginning to catch some sort of nasty cold, making her head dizzier than ever…

She coughed.

Rosa was pounding Aipom with her flippers when she heard Pikachu's girlish squeals. Turning, she saw the yellow rodent throwing her gem into the air as little spark fires continued to dance around his feet. The purple monkey must've seen the trouble his teammate was in, and ran over. Spotting the bag of Geo Pebbles to her right the Piplup clambered over and shoved her flipper into it, before hurling whatever projectile implements there was at the evil duo.

The two Geo Pebbles skipped away in different directions like children after school, but the third object – the Blast Seed – flew out further due to its lightness. It managed to find Pikachu, detonating upon collision on his back.

"Oh, blast!" it was too late for him to get away as the heat singed his back, leaving him with little blisters on his skin. Aipom, who had initially jumped away from the loud bang which echoed through the cavern, managed to gather himself and went for the closest target he could find – a newly recovered Jenny.

"Hand, it, over," the purple monkey cornered the Torchic to a large boulder, but his opponent stood firm, the string on the gem clamped firmly in her beak. The cistern didn't look like a promising place to run to, and Aipom's tail had positioned itself to the left to stop her from escaping the other way. Jenny let out a low growl and swung her left leg, but her right leg – which had been injured several times now – could not hold her up by itself, and buckled away at the vigorous movement.

"Now, now…" Aipom mocked the defiant Torchic, who was whirling her head in the other direction to stop him from taking the gem, "This would be easier if you were a bit more cooperative—"

Jenny was having none of it. Her muffled abuses, while incomprehensible, spelt out her intentions as she propelled forward with her healthy leg, her body ramming into Aipom as if he was another road-kill in front of the crowbars.

Meanwhile, Pikachu was on all fours, jumping and weaving through Rosa's barrage of Geo Pebbles. The blisters on his back had slowed his movements. His eyes narrowed in anger at this little set-back, and his mouth was brimming with frustration at the stinging feeling which didn't fade away. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Rosa had ran out of ammunition, and there was only one thing left for her to do.

The Piplup closed her eyes, blocking out the background noise and concentrated in readying her attack. Only trouble is Pikachu could summon up his own elements using half the time it takes for her to use Bubbles. As the familial crackling of electricity shot towards her again her eyes snapped open, the stream of bubbles which came out of her beak was quickly reduced to nothing but thin air.

Elsewhere in the cavern, Jenny busied herself running away from Aipom. She had no other plans, other than tiring out the purple monkey as the pursuit went on. Much to her dismay she had to skip, dodge and roll at attacks made towards her from behind, and the effort she wasted at turning her head every two seconds or so was beginning to exhaust her.

On the other hand, Aipom still seemed fit and well, but if one listened to his breathing carefully, they would be able to tell that he, too, was starting to get fatigued.

_Huff… I need rest…_ The Torchic could feel her right leg protesting at the way she had overworked it from the sprinting. She was at the bottom of the stairs now, and all she had to do was run up and disappear back into the… mystery dungeon place thing, wasn't it? Nodding at her 'great' idea, Jenny immediately put her plans to action, ignoring the warbled voice coming from behind her. She could almost see the tunnel beyond her now, and in just a few more feet away she could melt back into the darkness…

That is, until she felt herself hitting solid wall, hard.

With stars present in her eyes, Jenny looked to her front. Even though she was seeing her world in double vision, there was no mistaking it – the opening back to her tunnel and her ideal hiding place had somehow turned into a large, greyish-purple wall. It looked as if it had always been there rather than something built by geological disturbances in the space of five seconds. She tried tapping at the wall again, but nothing happened.

"I've got you now!" the victorious voice of Aipom rang in her ears. Panicking and unsure of her next move, she took off again, narrowly swerving past the monkey and his troublesome tail. _What kind of screwed-up place is this? Now we can't escape! _The string on the gemstone was starting to slip away from her beak, her lungs were screaming for air and - heaven forbid - the _stitches _were settling in.

Just when things couldn't get any worse, Pikachu was waiting for her, at the bottom of the stairs. Another swerve! Jenny could sense the electricity tingling at her feathers as she continued forward, reaching her Piplup partner…

…who was lying on the ground, still as the boulder which sat next to her.

"Rosa!" finally, her leg gave way and Jenny fell down in front of the Piplup. The gemstone dropped from her beak, landing between both of them. Rosa's eyes were open and she was able to blink in response, but that was all she could do.

"A-are you okay?"

"I… can't… feel my limbs…" Rosa whimpered.

The Torchic tapped at Rosa's stomach with her crown, "Did you feel that?"

"No—"

"Hand it over, _now_."

Their shadows were casted onto the girls as Aipom and Pikachu looked down upon them. Pikachu had a superior smile on his face, and even though Aipom was panting from fatigue his grin matched his partner's equally.

Jenny placed her talon protectively over the gemstone and glared at them. "No way," the Torchic's voice was as firm as nails in a piece of wood, _"No, freaking, way."_

"Shame," the purple monkey said in a light-hearted tone, "We don't normally like to take such drastic measures, but today just looked like one of the exceptions. Right, Pikachu?"

"Y-yeah! You d-don't get away with doing _this_!" he lifted his foot. Jenny smirked as she saw the couple of red patches that was the product of her 'embers'.

"Sorry. Thought your feet could do with some treatment," she retorted, "They really stink, did you know that?"

"You—!"

"Pikachu…" Aipom raised his voice, "Save your revenge on the attack. You ready?"

"Ready as ever," the yellow rodent's red pouches began to spark, his eyes narrowing in malice. Meanwhile, several black balls had materialised in mid-air around the purple monkey. Defiance soon turned to horror as Jenny watched them spin around Aipom mysteriously, each growing in power with every revolution around his waist.

She closed her eyes, her talon gripped firmly at the gemstone.

"In three… two…"

Jenny tried shifting herself and Rosa to the left, hoping to lessen the damage that will be inflicted on both of them…

"…one…"

"_Lower all your attacks at once!" _a new voice boomed, _"And that apply to both of you! This is an order!"  
_

* * *

I have to stop using so many cliff-hangers! Seriously!

You know how you can only go forwards when dungeon-exploring? I thought about that... and figured that there must've been some magic from the place itself which stops the explorers from back-tracking.

Oh, and Aipom was using Hidden Power in that last part there.


	5. Chapter 4 - A Sleepover

Chapter 4! I spent a little bit longer than usual on this chapter due to various reasons (such as working on my other fanfic). At least this chapter doesn't have cliffhangers!

* * *

"_Lower all your attacks at once! And that apply to both of you! This is an order!"_

The steely, reprimanding voice made Jenny open her eyes in curiosity, but because her views were blocked by her two opponents, the only thing she could see was the navy colour filling in the gaps between Aipom and Pikachu. Lying at her feet, Rosa gave an audible gasp which went unnoticed – because as a consequence of their shock, the duo from Team CBE accidentally unleashed their attacks on both girls. Black balls of energy whizzed around Aipom's back and straight over the Torchic's crown, while bolts of electricity fell around them, resulting in something which looked like an inexperienced personnel had tried to do their own electrical work. Luckily, only one of the bolts ended up hitting Jenny, and some of the feathers on her head were incinerated as a result. She winced at the burn which now residing above her left eye.

A girlish scream filled the air, and Jenny saw a large column of water sail over everyone's head. The deafening sound told her the large pressure behind the jet of liquid as it made a big splash on the wall behind them, sending sprays of water in random directions.

As a loud curse flew out of Pikachu's mouth he whipped around, coming face-to-face with the newcomer. A majestic penguin towered over him. Her azure eyes, which were positioned between her golden tridents, gave Pikachu a glare which bore straight into his face. Most of her body was covered in the navy colour Jenny saw earlier, with the exception of her face, fins and the edge of her flippers – they were in a lighter blue. The front of her body was decorated by fins which assembled themselves in the shape of a tie, and the white frills on either side of it resembled that of a butler's tuxedo. As the Empoleon edged closer to the yellow rodent, the edges of her flippers bumped against a boulder, creating an ear-piercing screech similar to someone dragging their fingernails across a blackboard.

"Did you not hear me speak the first time, young man?" the Empoleon's voice was full of fury, "I asked both of you to stop attacking, and you deliberately disobeyed me."

"Y-y-you idiots!" another voice shouted, and Aipom saw his dear leader's pink head poke out from behind the Empoleon, "She told you t-to stop!"

"W-we—"

"W-we panicked, okay?" Aipom babbled on, his arms waving frantically at the large penguin, "M-madam! I honestly d-didn't mean t-to fire that!"

"Yeah! T-that's right!" Pikachu defended, his paws clamping onto Aipom's right wrist for support, "W-we weren't expecting you, madam!"

Eyes scanning the petrified duo in front of her, she hit her flipper at the boulder again, this time leaving visible scratches on the surface. To her full satisfaction, the two-thirds of Team CBE were now holding onto each other for dear life, and whimpering for all the deities they knew to come and save them.

"Very well, gentlemen," she said coldly, "You may take your leave."

Jenny watched with an opened beak as Aipom and Pikachu scrambled over to the pink cat. The trio exchanged a few inaudible words before Skitty paced over to the natural cistern, her paws digging frantically in front of the rocks. All this was performed under the open and measured gaze of the Empoleon. As the sand eventually gave way to a large grey square painted onto the ground, Skitty ushered her teammates over and they stood in a circle, holding onto each other's limbs like children being told to gather for story time. A warm, bright yellow light began beaming from underneath their feet and they would've passed off as suitable models for shopfront windows, if not for the various scratches and bruises decorated in various locations on their body. Within seconds, the yellow light grew more intense until suddenly, the trio vanished into thin air.

"Urrk…"

"Rosa!" the tough, intimidating exterior softened as the Empoleon approach the two girls, "Are you alright?"

"S-she was paralysed before," Jenny explained slowly, her eyes deciding to steer away from the steel-armoured penguin for the time being, "Rosa, can you feel anything?"

"Yes… the muscles are starting to loosen," the Piplup jiggled the tip of her flipper, "But it's going to take a few more minutes before I can move my whole body again."

"Oh, thank goodness, my dear. I was getting worried," the Empoleon breathed a sigh of relief, her yellow claws reaching into a burgundy-coloured bag which was slung over her shoulder, "I think I might have picked up a Cheri Berry from Apple Woods… oh, here," she said softly, pulling out a small red berry about the same size of two human fingernails, "Eat this. You will recover faster."

There was a moment of hesitation before the Piplup allowed her grandmother to feed her the fruit. Rosa closed her eyes and tried to ignore the spicy juice burning at her tastebuds. She wanted to spit it back out, but the Empoleon's gaze made her consider otherwise. Swallowing the remaining pieces of the Cheri Berry, she felt her muscles began to warm up, as if someone had given her a hot water bottle to sleep with during a cold winter. Cautiously, the Piplup tried testing her body function by sitting back up. Parts of her limbs still operated like cogs that needed lubrication, but it was better than not moving at all.

"That's better, Rosa. Now, just stay still."

"Gran?" the Piplup tried to fan out the hotness from her mouth, "Do you have any water?"

"Here… I have to admit it was a bit over-ripened when I picked it, but it should work just as well," the Empoleon handed her a glass bottle with a rubber lid, before turning to the Torchic, "And who might you be, young lady?"

"Name's Jenny," said Torchic raised her head. The butterflies in her stomach were settling back to their place.

"Is it short for Jennifer?"

"Y-yeah," Jenny couldn't help but frown at the way the stranger had used her full name.

"My name is Emily. I am Rosa's grandmother," the Empoleon introduced herself, "Can you stand up for me, young lady?"

"Sure…" she quickly jumped to her feet, but her right leg was still acting out of order, causing her to stumble to the side. However, this time she was prevented from having another unpleasant meeting with the ground, as Emily supported her back up with her large steel flipper.

"Don't worry, dear. I am not going to hurt you," Emily added when she saw the Torchic stare at her pointy yellow claws.

"Jenny and I met on the beach," Rosa explained, her right flipper brushing sand off her gemstone, "She helped me fight Pikachu and Aipom, gran."

"Oh, those troublesome youngsters… I mean, really!" Emily scowled, "Ganging up on you like that… they are lucky I chose not to press charges on them! I was heading to the beach to find you when Skitty walked past me, muttering foolishly about her teammates stealing a gemstone. I became suspicious so I decided to ask her about it. I was right – as soon as Skitty realised who I was she tried to run away, so I forced her to lead me here. I got here just in time, too…"

With that, she turned to face Jenny, "It is quite brave of you to do something like this, young lady. You have my admirations. Still, shouldn't you seek help from an adult first, before trying to take on your enemies?"

If she still had her human face right now, there is no doubt Rosa and Emily would've seen her blush. Luckily, her orange fur has now taken care of the problem.

"I-I thought I could help, because I know how to fight a little," she answered earnestly, "I just wasn't expecting the cave to be this big, or the enemies to be so… tough."

"Are there no one in your family who taught you about the dangers of mystery dungeons?" the Empoleon said, "I shall have a little talk with them later, if that is possible."

"That's not possible… Emily," the Torchic muttered, "They don't live here."

"Jenny said she haven't been taught any of that stuff, gran," Rosa was standing up now, the gemstone back around her neck, "Besides, she was saying weird things about who she was—"

"You still don't believe me?" Jenny couldn't stop herself from yelling. Frustration was slowly creeping back into her mind. "My god! How many times do I have to say it, before your ignorant little brain will learn to accept the facts?"

"There is no need to raise your voice when you're speaking, young lady," said Emily sternly, "And please refrain from insulting my granddaughter like that."

The Torchic avoided Emily's looks and uttered an apology half-heartedly.

"I said it was weird, I didn't say I don't believe you!" the Piplup defended herself. She crossed her flippers in defiance.

"What was this 'weird' subject Jenny brought up, Rosa?"

"Jenny said she used to be a human, gran," the Piplup grumbled.

The Empoleon stepped back with her eyes widened, "H-human?" she quickly recomposed herself, "Rosalind, dear. I hope you are not sprouting up nonsense here."

"Well, I did tell her that, gran," Rosa held up her flipper to stop Jenny from protesting, "But she was fully convinced about the idea. Plus, some of the things she did… it made me think that… maybe she could be telling the truth, after all."

"What are these 'things' you were concerned about?"

"Let's see—"

"W-wait, Rosa," the Torchic suddenly cut in, "Is it okay if I explain it to your grandma instead?"

A shrug from Rosa indicated her acceptance.

"Emily… this is what happened…" Jenny sighed heavily, her talons shifting along the ground, "I… I remember being a human. My memories are still there and I can record some basic information, such as the name of the street I lived in. But everything else is jumbled up! Sometimes words or pictures would pop up in my mind, and I wouldn't be able to tell you how they're related to me in any way!" her voice heightened in volume, "It's just so frustrating that no one wanted to believe me!"

"Alright, please calm down, Jenny," said Emily, sounding hesitant, "We have not said anything yet."

"Umm… I have no idea what mystery dungeons are, until Rosa showed me," at this, Jenny drew a circle along the sand, "These dungeons are impossible to escape! I tried to backtrack, but then some wall magically appeared and then…" she casted a glance at the Piplup, "Well, you know what happened, Rosa."

"Once you've moved down the stairs in the cave, you can't go back up. You can only continue on," Rosa explained, "The same can be said when you're trying to escape the dungeon. You use Warp Zones to teleport away from here," her flipper was now pointing at the grey square, which Team CBE used to vanish from the place.

Going a bit closer, Jenny saw the square was actually a sigil. The pattern was mainly made up of a perfectly symmetrical eight-pointed star, with some of the points painted red or yellow. Inside it were concentric circular lines with a large, filled purple circle right in the middle of everything.

"I see."

"I probably should've told you that earlier, shouldn't I?" said Rosa quietly.

"Yeah, you probably should," Jenny answered tactlessly, "It would've saved us a whole lot of trouble."

"I—"

"Now, now, there is no need for that," said Emily, "I am sure both of you are tired right now. Jenny…"

"Yes?"

"I want you to have a look at something," with that, Emily pulled out a stone fruit from her bag. It was the size of a small baseball, and its skin was yellow with alien blue circles on them.

"Is that a fruit?" Jenny asked.

"It's a berry, and it's quite common around this part of the world," Emily hinted, "Do you know the name of it?"

"Uhh…" the former human girl had absolutely no idea, "Blue-and-yellow berry?" she said sluggishly, "Alien Berry?"

Rosa couldn't help but stifle a giggle.

"I was being serious, you know," said the Torchic, pouting.

"It's an Aspear Berry, Jenny."

"Aspear… right. So what was that all about?"

"I was testing your theory. You see, having no knowledge about the nature of mystery dungeons is not a definitive proof, because that's how some Pokémon end up getting lost in these places. I picked a question which can be answered by the majority of the population," Emily turned to her granddaughter, "Unless Jenny has been living under a rock, she should know what an Aspear Berry looks like. There might be fifty different species of berries out there, but most Pokémon can distinguish the more common ones such as Oran and Cheri Berries. However," she put the berry back into her bag, "Jenny, you were able to talk to both Rosa and I with much clarity, so I don't think you were the type to be completely shut out from the rest of the world. For now, your statements are plausible."

"Plausible?" the Torchic raised her eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, Jenny, but you can't go around telling everyone you were a human, and expect other Pokémon to believe you. They'll probably think you're crazy," Rosa argued, "Still, if gran reckons your story make some sense… I see no reason in denying it any longer."

_Well, Jenny… it seems like that's the best you can get so far. _ "Alright, then…" she said rather reluctantly, "I suppose you're right…"

Just as the Torchic dropped her words, a draft of wind blew across the cavern. It felt surprisingly chilly, even to the steel-armoured penguin, as she watched both girls shudder.

"I think we have overstayed our welcome. We better go," Emily spoke up, "Oh, that reminds me, Jenny…"

The Torchic blinked in response.

"Where will you be staying tonight?"

_Tonight? Oh, no._ It took the Torchic a few second to realise her situation. So far, she had only been focused on the whole Team CBE affair, she had effectively forgotten what she'll do afterwards. _Uh-oh, I can't even walk home from here, let alone taking a bus or taxi! Home doesn't even exist in this world, anyway..._

"I… I don't know," she admitted with great embarrassment, "My home is back in the human world. Unless you have an idea on how to get there…" Jenny couldn't help but wince at her own words. _Yeah, okay. Even if I did manage to get home, how will everyone react to me being a Pokémon?_

"You're right, Jenny. We have no idea," said Rosa exasperatedly, "To us it's a place which only exists in books. Looks like you'll have to come and stay with us tonight."

"What?"

"Rosa is right, Jenny," said Emily, "Staying outside by yourself can be dangerous, especially when you don't know where to go."

The Torchic digested this. Emily's words sounded a little patronising, but she knew the Empoleon was right – it was bad enough that she had trouble going through mystery dungeons, _who knew how many more of these places exist in this world?_ She'd hate to wake up the next morning, and discover she had become someone else's breakfast.

"Besides, you deserve our hospitality, young lady," the Empoleon added, smiling, "You did help my granddaughter, after all."

Nodding in return, Jenny took a step onto the Warp Zone, "Shall we get going, then?" she said.

"Wait, hold on…" the Piplup stepped closer to Jenny and started sniffing again, "Eww… you still smell a bit—"

"Rosalind! That is a very rude thing to say!" Emily scolded.

"But gran… she should at least clean up a bit before going to our home!"

"I was thinking of giving Jenny a brief sand bath when we get out. There is no need to announce it to the whole world."

Jenny just gave a repressed sigh. _It wasn't my fault…_

* * *

The sand bath went along with minimal complaints, as Emily and Rosa gently splashed fine, dry sand all through her feathers. Jenny had never felt so humiliated in her whole life – the last time she needed someone else's help in this area of personal hygiene was when she broke her arm climbing a tree.

_No, wait… now that I think of it, it could've been my leg. Never mind, at least there are not many people – I mean, Pokémon – watching…_

"Okay, now just shake the sand off, and you're good to go," Rosa instructed.

When the trio left the beach and began climbing up the hill, the sun had already sunk halfway below the horizon. Following the path situated between two patches of trees, they reached a crossroad with a dilapidated windmill on their right and a locked-up trapdoor on their left. The signpost to the far left was carved with animal footprints arranged in various directions, which the Torchic thought was odd. She did, however, understand half of the swirly alphabet captions underneath it – it was something along the lines of "Treasure Town".

There seemed to be nothing extraordinary about this Treasure Town – it looked more or less like a camping site with the occasional buildings next to some of the tents. But then again, it was dusk, so Jenny assumed most of the residents and shopkeepers had returned home for the night.

As they walked past the last shop in the vicinity, they reached the edge of a cliff. It was quite a picturesque outlook: in the distance, the Wingull were floating in the skies, only identifiable through the little black dots against the lurid swirls underneath the clouds. The sea appeared as if a drunken artist had knocked over their bottle of paint, the warm colours messing up with the azuline water and white foam. Above Jenny's head, a faded green flag fluttered in the sea breeze, its frayed edges twisting to and fro, completely fragile against the strong forces of nature.

Right next to the flagpole was a trapdoor similar to the one found at the crossroads. This one, however, was rectangular rather than circular, and it had no lock. Jenny soon discovered why – the wood which made the door had the thickness of two children's encyclopaedia, and could only be lifted up by Emily herself. The handle was also small so it only fit the Empoleon's claws, yet it was wrought strong enough to withstand the pulling forces. As the large block of wood landed on the side with a soft 'clunk', a set of stairs was revealed underneath.

"Home sweet home," said Rosa.

"You live here?"

"Yep. You can hardly miss our home from the beach down below. It's on a cliff shaped like a Sharpedo. And we…" she led the Torchic down into the room, "We are living in her mouth."

It was a space large enough to house a class of preschool children. The furniture layout was simple – a large cerulean rug was spread in the middle of the room with two straw chairs set on either side of it. An oak table was placed on top of the rug, with a wooden bowl filled up with fruit. Several books lie haphazardly on the table, one of them was already opened, revealing more of those strange footprint patterns Jenny saw on her way here. On the far side of the room was a natural fountain. The water sprouts are moving a bit slower than usual, but according to Emily it tends to flow a lot faster during the wet season. At the inner-most part of this place were three large depressions in the wall – two of them were laden with straw, while the third one was used as a storage area for just about anything. There were no walls on the right hand side. Instead, it was an opening with large stalactites and stalagmites acting as barriers preventing anyone from going near the edge and falling to their death.

"I apologise for the mess," said Emily as she hurried over to the table, "We were not expecting visitors, that's why I did not pack up the books."

"Oh! T-that's fine, really!" Jenny couldn't help but think back to her bedroom. From as far as she could record, the carpeted floor in her room was always littered with various junk. Meanwhile, Rosa had salvaged a little glass jar with turquoise paste in it. She pried open the rubber lid, releasing a slightly bitter fragrance which was detected by the Torchic.

"Here, let me fix up that mark on your head," said the Piplup, while Jenny lowered her head, allowing Rosa to dab some of the cream above her eye. Emily, having packed up the books, had started setting out some bowls on the table. She was watching the ways both girls interacted with each other, and the Torchic couldn't help but feel a bit uncomfortable at the Empoleon's surveillance.

"Feeling better?"

"Y-yeah," she quickly shifted her eyes in the opposite direction. A gentle breeze that entered through the Sharpedo's jaws licked at area above her eyes, sending a chilling sensation through her skin.

"Are…you okay?" Rosa asked, "You seem a bit worried."

"Your grandma is staring at us. It's weird," Jenny answered in a lowered voice.

The Piplup rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't be surprised if I were you. We don't normally get visitors who proclaimed themselves as a human. Oh, umm... gran?" she called out.

"What is it, Rosa?"

"Could you put some ointment on my back? It's a bit grazed, I think."

"I will do that right now," Emily took the jar from her, "By the way, dinner is ready."

There were three bowls on the table, two small ones and a big one for a particular Empoleon. Each was filled with almost the same thing - fruit salad with a large apple set in the middle of it all.

"Perfect Apples! Gran, you did manage it get them!" said Rosa excitedly.

"I was quite lucky, actually," said Emily as she sat down onto her large straw chair, "There weren't as many Pokémon picking them today, so there were lots of them on the tree when I got there. I didn't want to be too greedy, so I only picked three of them."

"They look like normal apples to me," said Jenny honestly, "A bit bigger with shiny surfaces, but that's about it."

"Why don't you give it a try?" Emily encouraged, putting the jar of ointment under the table.

_Now how do I eat this apple…?_ Jenny glanced at Rosa, who was busy pecking into her dinner. She used her flippers to anchor her apple in the bowl and the pointy bits of her beak to tear off the flesh. Now the Torchic felt even more awkward than usual. _I have to peck into it? Oh, well... here goes nothing._

Jerking her head forward, she took one peck at the apple. It shifted away from her. After a small grunt of displeasure she gave it another try. This time she achieved a dent in it the size of a small pin, but the skin she had scraped off was stuck to the top half of her beak. Fuming, the Torchic threw her head back and forth for her third attempt. It was a disastrous result – she ended up spilling half the contents from her bowl, earning her strange looks from the hosts.

"Sorry, I'm not used to eating like this…" Jenny mumbled, and proceeded to eat up the spilt mess. All this time, Rosa stifled a giggle. Even Emily had an amused look on her face. Needless to say, the dinner continued on without further incidents as the Torchic got used to aiming her beak at that one particular spot of soft flesh. The amount of time it took her to focus on pecking it made her sweat a little, but she was able to finish eating her dinner.

_This is going to take a bit of practise. Guess I can't help it, either._ Jenny thought as she dipped her beak into the fountain, washing off the bits of apple that had stuck to her face. _At least the apple was nice! It wasn't too mushy or sour. It _was_… perfect._

When she returned, Rosa was hugging a book in her flippers. It was one of those books with weird footprints on them.

"Jenny, I was thinking about what you have said at Beach Cave," she set the book onto the table and flipped open its yellowed pages, "You arrived here very suddenly, without any knowledge of the world we are living in. So, the least we could do is help you learn the basics about our world. This is the Poképedia," she turned back to the cover briefly, revealing a graphic of two concentric circles with wings, "It's an encyclopaedia on just about everything."

"Is that what it's called?" said Jenny, "Rosa, I don't understand it."

"You don't understand? Could you be a bit more specific?"

"I don't understand all these footprint symbols," she explained, "It looked like gibberish to me. How am I supposed to read this book?"

"Oh—r-right!" the Piplup said sheepishly, "I forgot… you probably don't understand our written language…"

"What about this book?" Emily walked over with a smaller book. The same graphic was indented on its cover, except this time, Jenny could identify the strange, swirly alphabet title as "Poképedia – the Ultimate Reference to Our World".

"Yeah, I can read that," said Jenny.

"You read in Unown symbols?" said Rosa incredulously, "Those books are near impossible to read!"

"Well…" Jenny levered the pages open using her crown, "It is a bit hard with all the circles in the alphabets, but I'll cope."

"Now, this is interesting," Emily remarked, "Unown symbols are normally studied by researchers and hobbyists who periodically examine ancient plaques and artefacts. You, on the other hand, seem to have some fluency to this language."

"Well, I kind of do. The written language we use is very similar to this," the Torchic strained to read the current page word by word, "B-e-r-r-i-e-s… _berries_. This… is a section… in… which… we exam—"

Something flickered above their head. A moment later, a brighter light beamed onto their page. Emily was tapping at a large orb which was hung onto the ceiling by a string. With each tap, the orb's glow increased in intensity.

"Sorry Jenny, I was fixing the Luminous Orb," said the Empoleon, "It tends to extinguish if we left it glowing for too long, so I have to tap on it every now and then."

"Oh, I didn't realise it was dark already!" she looked out to the sea. There was nothing more than a few crimson streaks left in the mazarine sky.

"Wow, you are pretty fast at reading the symbols," said Rosa, sounding impressed, "You should enter the Unown Speed Reading Competition in this year's Moonlight Festival!"

"You guys hold competitions for these sorts of things?" Jenny asked, "Heh… sure, why not! I'm sure I'll beat everyone at it!"

"That's nice to hear. At least you'll be able to beat Aipom at his own game. He has been the champion for the past two years..."

"Do you have any other books like this, Emily?" the Torchic continued to examine the pages.

"Oh… the kind Unown librarian gave me five of these books during last year's clearance. Let me see if I can find them," the Empoleon walked over to one to the storage area. The sound of miscellaneous items being shuffled around echoed through the room, while Jenny and Rosa pored over the two different versions of the encyclopaedia. This went on for about half an hour before Emily came back to the table, holding a black book.

"That's 'The Story of the Time Saviours', isn't it?" Rosa immediately recognised the cerulean hexagonal-circular shape with dark blue arrows on the cover, "I didn't know there was an Unown version—wait…" the Piplup opened her beak slowly, her eyes widening as she let out a gasp, "I see what you mean now, gran…"

"What?" Jenny looked up from her encyclopaedia.

"Jenny, you should read this book!" Rosa said quickly.

"Why?" she asked. There was a tone of confusion in her voice.

"It's a biography of Team Destiny, the team who saved our world from destruction!"

"So?" Jenny shrugged.

"Team Destiny's leader, Elisa the Meganium…" Rosa turned the book over, revealing a picture of a green dinosaur with a pink flower around its neck, "That's her. She used to be a human as well!"

"Really?" Jenny slid over, almost bumping the Piplup off her chair, "I knew it! I knew I was right! Oh, err… sorry," Rosa tossed her an annoyed look as she got back into her place, "So… you think this Elisa and I are connected somehow?"

"Well, maybe," she explained, "According to her teammate, Sapphire the Empoleon, she didn't have any of her memories when she woke up, other than the fact she used to be a human. On the other hand, you still have some of yours. Plus, her amnesia and transformation were caused by a Pokémon who attacked her while she was time-travelling as a human…"

_Time-travelling? Total amnesia? Whew. Whoever this Elisa is, she sure had been through some major events in her lifetime._ "Do you think we'll be able to meet her or something?" Jenny asked, "Maybe I could ask her about my situation."

"That's impossible, Jenny," said Rosa, "If you read the last chapter, it said she disappeared with her partner on an expedition decades ago. They found Sapphire's body washed up on the beach several months later, and Elisa was presumed to be dead as well."

The Torchic groaned in disappointment. "Aww… she's the only lead we have so far, though!"

"Guess that can't be helped," the Piplup replied, "Maybe there are some older Treasure Town residents who can help you as well, but other than that… I have no idea."

"Looks like an interesting read, though," Jenny turned to the first page. At the same time, the orb above flickered several times before going out, leaving the duo with nothing but moonlight shining through the Sharpedo's teeth. As if on instinct Rosa picked up a stick by the armchair and began hitting it like a child playing with a piñata, allowing the light to come back on. The two watched as it swung precariously over their heads.

"Be careful with that, Rosa," Emily's stern voice floated from the back of the room. She was sitting in her alcove getting ready for bedtime, "You do not want to smash it again like last time, do you?"

"I won't, gran," the Piplup answered in monotone.

"Just out of curiosity – what would happen if you smashed it?" said Jenny.

"The room gets filled with blinding light which makes you delirious for two hours, and we end up wasting 150 Poké."

_I'll keep that in mind, then._ The swinging orb caused shadows of objects in the room to distort with every movement. Jenny watched as Rosa closed her copy of the encyclopaedia, putting it back on the shelf next to her bed.

"Are you heading off to bed already?"

"If you want I'll stay up for a bit longer," said Rosa, "But we'll have to talk a bit more quietly. Gran probably had a long day today and she needs rest."

"Right," Jenny glanced at the Empoleon. Emily was sitting on her piles of straws, sleeping with her back leant against the alcove. Not wanting to wake up the old lady, the Torchic proceeded to read the first few pages of "The Story of the Time Saviours", reducing her speech to nothing more than a mumble. It was slightly daunting at first, because the 'v's are similar to the 'g's, and 'h' and 'o' looked like blood brothers. _Who in their right mind would make the 'h's look like 'o's? That, I would like to know! _She wanted to shout. However, as time ticked on, Jenny found a way which made this activity a little bit more enjoyable. By recognising some of the more common words, like 'he' and 'blue', she could work out the letters in their rightful place._  
_

It wasn't long before Rosa was overcome with weariness. She gave up on reading alongside the Torchic and headed to her bed, leaving Jenny to continue discovering Team Destiny's adventures by herself. Chapter one was composed through the account of Elisa's partner Sapphire and Crobat (real name not disclosed – Editor's Note), former member of the disbanded Team Skull. Both spoke of their encounter at Beach Cave, where Elisa, as a Chikorita, stood up against the then Zubat and Koffing and tried to get Sapphire's Relic Fragment back. Jenny couldn't help but feel uneasy at the similarity between her and Elisa's first experience.

_If her experience and mine are so similar... am I just like Elisa, sent here to save the world? Do all human who get sent here have to achieve something like this? _She blinked at the page, her mind processing the enormity of such 'task'. _B-but… I'm just a girl with a normal life! Surely not! _Jenny shook her head frantically. _If I'm some sort of cheesy 'chosen one', I have to be pretty powerful and everything. I can't even breathe fire properly, for goodness sake! I'm fine with standing up to bullies, but trying to be a hero for the world… no! That's way out of question for me!_

The Luminous Orb, sensing her distress, began to flicker once more. It held that status for five seconds before going out, leaving the Torchic to sit in the inky darkness. She gave a throaty yelp, before remembering Rosa's words and immediately clamped her beak shut. Outside, the moon hung above the serene sea, and Jenny could just see several Pokémon swimming in among the brighter ripples underneath the big, pale yellow sphere. She leapt from her seat and went closer, her eyes darting from the figures underneath the moon, to the dark canvas sprinkled with a pre-schooler's glitter glue.

Turning her attention back to the room, Jenny could barely see Emily or Rosa, but the sound of their snores indicated their presence._ I could try lighting the orb by balancing the stick in my beak._ She thought. Unfortunately, as soon as she had the stick clamped between her beak, she realised it was too tricky for her to lift it upright. Seeing the futility of trying to continue on reading her story, Jenny abandoned the stick and decided to settle down for the night in Emily's large armchair.

Unfortunately for her, even sleeping proved to be a bit annoying. At first, she found her human posture uncomfortable to sleep in, so she shifted around a bit, hoping the noises from the chair sweeping across the floor doesn't wake up her hosts. After experimenting with several sleeping positions, Jenny eventually settled on sitting and leaning back on the chair. It was strange, sleeping in this way, but at least it felt comfortable.

_Guess this is it for today. Well… hopefully we can find more answers to my problems tomorrow._

* * *

I just want to make something clear here: the Rosa in this story is, in no way shape or form, related to the Rosa in Pokémon Black/White 2 (just in case anyone is thinking of this theory).

When I was writing Emily's character, I sort of pictured her having a quaint, old lady's voice. That's why I tried to keep her speech as formal as possible.

About the language thing... I didn't think a recently arrived human would be able to read footprint runes (which is pretty much the more common written language in the Pokémon world), but it is possible for them to read Unown symbol, right?

Also, the ways in which each characters sleep is based off the sprites. Some reviewers from the older version pointed out I had Emily sleeping on her back initially so... yeah, change is required!

Finally, credits to Knightfall66, for his awesome fanfic inspired me with the Luminous Orb lighting idea.


	6. Chapter 5 - One Step at a Time

You know the main reason why this took so long? New Year celebrations - I was too busy eating, drawing this firework picture, and the fact it's kind of a filler chapter with a hell lot of explanation, so without it we can't actually proceed to the exciting parts of the story.

Okay, won't ramble on for too long. Also, to carry on a little bit of tradition from the old version, every chapter from now on will begin with a Poképedia entry. The entries may or may not be relevant to the contents of the chapters.

* * *

**Exploration Teams—A team of two to four Pokémon who explore new dungeons, rescue other Pokémon and captures outlaws. The most famous exploration teams in the last fifty years are Team Raiders and Team Destiny.**

**Poképedia, Section 1: General**

* * *

Daybreak. It is the time of day when forces of the dark retreats from their dominance and its opponent, aided by the aftermaths of nuclear fusion, began to take their place. Slowly and surely, the darkness was reduced to a fainter grey, and the bright sun popped out from beneath the horizon. Its rays shot towards the clouds in the sky, giving it a flavescent hue.

Jenny could feel a beam of light being shone on her face as she scrunched up her eyes, before opening them. The change in brightness almost blinded her as she quickly resort to staring down instead. While waiting for the black spots to dance out of her vision, she saw the fork-like talons that had become her feet. The sight of it jolted her into reality.

_What the—! H-hold on… I'm a Torchic now, aren't I?_ She thought. Her mind was processing the information with great effort. _Rosa… gemstone… Emily…_

_Oh my goodness, I'm still feeling sleepy…_Those throbbing sensation in her head was a signal from her brain demanding more resting time, and along with the force of gravity pulling at her eyelids, she had no choice but to comply. However, the sun wasn't going to let that happen – and neither were Jenny's hosts. About ten minutes later, the sound of wooden bowls clunking against the table and softly spoken conversations began tapping into her consciousness.

"Wake up, sleepy head!"

Jenny groaned, her mind trying to block out the perpetrator as she rolled to the side, "What...?"

"Come on! Wake up, Jenny!" the voice grew a little louder.

Two seconds later, a pair of forceful arms began shaking her back and forth. The surprise move caused the Torchic to reel back in shock. In the background, the other voice began, "Is she awake yet?"

"I am now…" Jenny grumbled. Her blurry vision began to focus on the blue penguin in front of her, "Rosa, you didn't need to shake me that hard."

"Oh. Sorry…" the Piplup said sheepishly. She had "The Story of Time Saviours" tucked under her flipper. "We'll be having breakfast soon. I thought I should wake up you for that."

"Right…"

While waiting for her short 'hangover' to pass, information were slowing finding their way back into her head. _I'm still a Pokémon. This isn't a dream. That little penguin's name is Rosa. Some idiots tried to steal her gemstone and I helped her get it back. Emily is her grandma, and she rescued us. This Pokémon called Elisa, also used to be human just like me… is that all? Urk, all this thinking is making my head hurt._

"Breakfast is ready, girls," a mild voice floated in the air, "They're leftovers from yesterday – I hope you won't mind, Jenny."

There were no Perfect Apples this morning – instead, Emily was carrying a large bowl filled with berries mixed with some chopped up fruit. The Torchic could identify mango, lychee and a bit of pineapple in hers. She also picked up a strawberry-like fruit with turquoise skin and tried to eat it, but as soon as the berry's juice touched her tastebuds, Jenny immediately spat it back out. Never mind the glare she was now receiving from Emily - the bitter aftertaste reminded her of those Chinese herbal medicines her parents had made her try when she was sick. It took her five mouthful of the fruit salad and a cup of water before she was able to wash off the Rawst Berry's nasty residue.

_I'm not going to eat that again. Urgh._

At least, Jenny discovered that even her hosts have some reservations about some of the berries they were eating. When it comes to one of those small, spicy fruits – Cheri Berries, Jenny recorded – both Emily and Rosa resort to either swallowing them like headache pills, or shoving more of the fruit salad into their beaks to reduce the spiciness.

After the bowls (and the pulpy Rawst Berry) were cleared away, the trio sat back down again. Emily had a piece of parchment with words written on them. Not that Jenny could understand the writing anyway – it was all in footprint runes.

"Jenny, after listening to what you have told us yesterday, we need to discuss your situation in a more serious manner," said the Empoleon, "I have written down a few things when I was cleaning the storage area yesterday, and I wanted to hear what you think about them."

"Right," Jenny nodded her head, "But before you start, Emily, I wanted to say something."

"Alright, go ahead."

"I was reading the books when I came across this a couple of times," she explained, "Emily, what do exploration teams do exactly, besides… well, exploring?"

"Why do you ask, Jenny?"

"Elisa was in one of them, didn't she?" said the Torchic, "And she used to be a human as well," she stared at the ocean scenery in front of her, "I was just thinking that maybe I should follow her example, and start an exploration team myself."

"Jenny, are you nuts?" Rosa raised her voice.

"Why? It's just a matter of walking around a place and looking out for yourself, right?"

"Being in an exploration team doesn't necessary mean you spend all your time wandering around mindlessly looking for treasure, Jenny. Exploration teams spend most of their time catching outlaws and rescuing Pokémon from mystery dungeons," seeing the Torchic's eyebrows rose in curiosity, she quickly added, "I know, it might sound like a glorious job, but to do all that you'll need to have experience in exploring places, good survival skills and fighting skills. You barely know how to explore and fight. You can't even breathe fire!"

"In addition to what Rosa had said – you also have to be mentally tough to get through the dangerous places," Emily suggested, "The complexities and ever-changing nature of a mystery dungeon can drive an inexperienced explorer insane."

"But Elisa did it," Jenny argued back, "I mean, she's the only human-turned-Pokémon example I can follow so far. If exploration teams can go to uncharted lands, maybe we'll find something which can take me back to the human world! Who knows?" she tossed a glance at Rosa, who crossed her flippers in response, "I thought I did okay when I was fighting against Aipom! I just needed a bit of time with the fire-breathing thing. I'm sure if I practise a lot—"

"Just because someone else has done it, doesn't mean you should follow their examples," the Empoleon warned.

"And I've already told you, Jenny," the Piplup continued, a hint of exasperation in her voice, "You can't expect to learn something like that overnight! Take me, for example – my Bubbles attack has enough power to take down a Geodude, but it took me two months of intensive training before I can use it properly, and I still have a lot of work to do! Pikachu can get his Thundershock ready in a fraction of the time it takes me to fire large bubbles at him."

"But you said you were good with one-on-one combat. Plus, from what I've read in Poképedia, you're a water type Pokémon, and water types are at a huge disadvantage when it comes to fighting electric types like Pikachu," said Jenny informatively, "If we switched roles back at Beach Cave, I'm sure we would've managed some kind of victory as a team, right?"

"You can't say that for sure—wait," the Piplup allowed the words to sink in, "We? Y-you're not suggesting…"

"I am deducing Jenny wants you on her team," Emily concluded.

There was a pregnant pause around the room as Rosa gave the two Pokémon in front of her quick glances, before returning her eyes to the fruit bowl on the table.

"Y-you want to start an exploration team… with me? May I ask why?" the Piplup asked tentatively.

"Rosa, you're more experienced than me when it comes to these mystery dungeons. Without you, I probably won't even know how to use Oran Berries and Blast Seeds. And I'm not trying to flatter you or anything," she said pointedly, "I'm telling the truth!"

"Jenny! But I—"

"Ahem, before you start, Rosa," the Empoleon interrupted, "Shouldn't you return the compliment first?"

Letting out a quick rush of air from her nostrils, the Piplup gave Jenny a small nod, "Thanks for the compliments, but... this is ridiculous!" she held out her flippers, "We've known each other for less than a day, and you want to put your trust in me? Plus, I'm still a learner! Why do you think I asked Team CBE to rescue me in the first place?"

"Was that why they said you 'owe' them money?"

"Well, yeah. But I—"

"If we start a team together, we won't need that kind of help anymore, would we? Come on, Rosa, just think about it!"

"It's not that simple!"

"Okay, girls, I have heard enough," the Empoleon spoke up. She flicked the piece of parchment before putting it down on the table, "Both of you have very valid points, but I do not want this discussion to turn into a heated argument. Do I make myself clear?"

Both girls nodded obediently. Jenny, however, couldn't help but grunt in annoyance.

"To be honest, exploration team is on the bottom of my list of suggestions. I only added that in just this morning," she tried to flatten the curled up bit of the parchment by putting weight on it – namely, the fruit bowl. "My first suggestion is to stay here and gather information from the library and highly ranked exploration teams. The trouble with highly ranked teams is there are not many of them these days, none of them are based here and their visits to Treasure Town are sporadic at most. We could be waiting for as long as three months for one team to arrive, and information are not guaranteed."

"What about the library?" Jenny asked.

"Mr Unown is a very diligent librarian, but most of the information on humans comes from scholars' theoretical essays. I have not looked through all of them, but the ones I have read do not contain enough solid evidence to back up their arguments."

_It'll still be interesting to see how Pokémon view humans, though._ "It's okay. I'll give the library a visit anyway. So what else is there?"

"The second option is to take your case to the Pokémon Federation," Emily gestured to the halfway point of the page, and Rosa edged closer to see the writing, "Pokémon Federation is an organisation that keeps track of every single exploration team in the world. The leaders are said to be skilled at exploring and highly knowledgeable on a lot of topics. Unfortunately, their bases are known only to a selected few, and the organisation handle over hundreds of cases a day. You could try sending them a letter, but I don't know if it will reach them."

"_'We could also ask everyone in town about this matter'_," the Piplup read off the page word by word, "But gran… everyone will think we've gone mad!" she exclaimed.

"I was brainstorming for ideas, so I wrote down everything I could think of, Rosa," Emily replied, "Admittedly, that was a silly idea. I do not want other residents to start nasty rumours about us, and I certainly do _not_ want to put Jenny in the path of stalkers or kidnappers."

Emily's comment made the Torchic shudder in disgust, "That's terrible! Why would anyone want to stalk or kidnap me?" she said.

"Just as a 'Pokémon of Interest', probably," Rosa answered, "Maybe they'll try and see if you've been cursed by the heavens, before putting you through public execution."

"_Rosalind!_ Don't tell such ridiculous stories in front of a guest!"

"Mr Kecleon said these things happen regularly in their tribe, gran!"

"Young lady, you know better not to trust what a Kecleon have to say," Emily said sternly, "Their success in business comes as a result of their refined skills in lying, and opportunity-grabbing. Even if what they've said have some fragments of truth to them, the topic is still not appropriate for everyday conversations. Do you understand?"

"A-anyway," Jenny interrupted, not in the mood for another of Emily's lectures, "Besides all that, are there any more suggestions?"

"No," said the Piplup, her eyes scanning through the page. "I'm on the last point on the list… _'Join an exploration team, but her fighting skills need thorough examination beforehand'._ Wait a minute. Gran…"

"What?" the Torchic lifted her head, "Emily—"

"I want to see how well Jenny can fight," said the Empoleon, "When the two of you were cornered, I saw various tracks on the sand. That tells me both of you had tried to defend yourselves from Pikachu and Aipom. So," Emily stood up, taking the piece of parchment with her, "Today, we are taking a trip to the training dojo in town. One of the instructors will put you through the paces."

"Good idea, gran," Rosa nodded, "Plus, I can show Jenny around the town as well."

_A training dojo, huh?_ Jenny tapped her talons, her mind forming images of blue mats filled with synthetic foam, students with white robes and polished wooden floors. She couldn't remember how long since since she last attended a self-defence lesson, but she did remember this one chaotic lesson they had. Their poor instructor spent most of the time encouraging girls to put down their phones, and breaking up fights between immature boys. In the end, one of the boys ended up breaking their pinkie finger, and a girl was crying for compensation because someone cracked the screen on her mobile - or was it her glasses? The fragmented memory seems so far away for her now, and Jenny couldn't help but sigh – she wouldn't mind being back there again, even if it meant she had to put up with that wasteful excuse of a lesson. At least, she'll still be in the human world, where everything was familiar to her.

* * *

Treasure Town seemed different from what Jenny saw yesterday afternoon. There was a more excited buzz around the area as the Torchic looked around in awe. Many different Pokémon were out and about, catching up with friends or purchasing grocery from the stalls. A group of Pidgey and Taillow were chasing each other in the air, while a mature Pelipper flapped his white-and-blue wings. His yellow baggy beak shouted out commands for the children to settle down, albeit with little success. Several citizens had come up to Emily and greeted her good morning, and most of them appear to have an expected curiosity at the Torchic accompanying her. Going along with a rehearsed story, the Empoleon described Jenny as a long lost distant relative coming to stay for a while. Thankfully, none of them seem to harbour any objections or suspicions at the orange chick, although a Madam Arbok did appear slightly surprised at the idea of a familial relationship between water type and fire type Pokémon.

"Here's the Kangaskhan's Storage," Rosa pointed to a brown beast with scaly skin. She had a black skull plate covering her forehead, with two horns protruding from either side of her head. She stood in front of her shop – a building similar to that of a termite mould, but with drawers sticking out from the sides as part of the architectural decoration. Some wild flowers and grass were grown from the inside of the 'drawers', making the shop look like an apothecary from a fantasy world.

"Exploration teams often find useful items and treasures from their trips. Most prefer to store their stuff with Mrs Kangaskhan for safety," Rosa explained, "Of course, citizens with small homes also chooses to store their stuff with her."

"Is that a baby in her pouch?" Jenny asked, her eyes staring at a mini Kangaskhan who resides in the shopkeeper's pouch. Unlike the mother, the baby had grey skin, and their horns are small and stubby.

"Yes, she is quite protective of her child," Emily praised the shopkeeper, "Kindest mother in town, she treats everyone's children as her own."

"Speaking of mothers…" the Torchic looked at the two penguin before her, "Rosa, where is your Mum? Is she away for work?"

Immediately, the smile on the Piplup's face was replaced by a frown as she lowered her head, her eyes studying intently on the dandelion on the ground. Reading the atmosphere, Emily ushered Jenny onwards to a T-junction on their right. Once she made sure there were no Pokémon close enough to eavesdrop, the Empoleon answered quietly, "Both of Rosa's parents died a long time ago. She is still quite upset about the whole thing, so it is best if you don't bring this up again in the near future."

"O-oh…" Jenny blinked several times, wishing she could have more feathers on her to hide underneath, "I-I'm sorry…"

"It's okay, dear. You didn't know beforehand, after all."

When Emily and Jenny walked back Rosa, the Piplup had her beak sealed, and her eyes were staring into a distant place. Tactfully, Jenny decided to give her a bit of time to recover as Emily pointed towards a store right opposite to the T-junction.

"Over there are the Kecleon brothers. They sell food and exploration equipment," explained Emily, her flipper pointing to a building that seemed like a circus tent with yellow, green and purple zigzags on them. Two chameleons were busy with handing out bags and receiving money from their customers. Both have the same body physiques of frilly ears and tails curled up like a large water hose. They also have the same yellow markings which graced the edge of their ears, lips, around their eyes in a concentric circle, and over their bellies as zigzags. The only difference – and quite a noticeable one, too – is the colour of their skin. One was green and the other, purple. When Jenny questioned the Empoleon about it, she answered, "He inherited the trait from his grandfather."

A loud squawk to her right made Jenny jump in surprise. The T-junction, which led down the small hill, to a large tent shaped with black-and-red tipped wings attached to a green ball. From the distance, the Torchic could vaguely see someone in a white robe flourishing their wings in front of their customers.

"That's Xatu's Appraisal," said the Empoleon, "Sometimes, when a Pokémon finds a treasure chest in a dungeon, they usually ask Xatu to unlock it for them for a fee. Rosa, you found a chest filled with ten Blue Gummis once, didn't you?"

Nodding, the Piplup replied in a small voice, "It was pretty good."

Crossing the stone bridge that arches over the small stream, the trio arrived on the eastern side of town. On both side of the road were tents and small adobes made out of either stone or wood. In front of them was a large area where most of the citizens were gathered. Every now and then, some of the Pokémon would walk past some of the residents wearing scarves or goggles on some parts of their upper body. Their pieces of fabric would be pinned together with a small badge looking similar to the graphic on Poképedia – two concentric circles with lines and wings.

"Emily, what are those badges for?"

"Those? Oh, the badges are given to team members to signify their legality with an official exploration team. They are also used to teleport the team or their clients out of the dungeon when a mission is complete," Emily glanced at the exploration teams before shaking her head, "But really, I would have preferred it if they leave their badges in the bag and do less parading around with it. They do break easily in careless hands."

"Erm… right, Emily. So, where do these two paths lead to?" indeed, the square in front of Jenny acted as a large crossroad in the town. She knew if she continued to walk forward she would return to the small crossroad with the windmill, but that was all. The path to her left goes through a patch of forestry and she couldn't see what was on the other side, while the other decision seem to point downhills to a wide structure with thatched roofing, stone walls and large wooden columns supporting on the four corners of the building.

"The left is for the police station," the Piplup spoke up, "The right is the training dojo."

"Oh, cool," Jenny commented casually, "So, shall we start walking down?"

"Hold on a minute, Jenny," Emily was taking a few coins out of her bag, "We have to visit a bank first. I need to deposit some money."

"You guys have a bank here?" the Torchic seemed surprised at the level of civilisation in town.

"Of course we do! Every towns and villages has one."

The building for the bank was constructed out of very coarse, orange bricks into the shape of a rook from chess games. It stood out against the plain, rectangular library which was built to its left. Accountant of the bank was a bipedal Pokémon. The creature had green hair which curled inwards like a helmet. Their head appeared to be connected to the white, flowing gown that is a part of their body. Green arms extended from either side of the bank manager's torso. Two red, triangular spikes protruded from the Gardevoir's front and back, complementing nicely with their red eyes.

The Gardevoir was glancing distractedly at an accountant's book, paying no attention to the trio who have arrived at the counter. That is, until Jenny cleared her throat.

"Excuse me, miss?"

"What is it, kid?" the psychic Pokémon shot back in a deeper, masculine voice – much to the shock and embarrassment of the orange chick, "And it's mister, not miss. Never judge anyone by their appearances."

"I-I-I'm sorry…"

Sighing, the Gardevoir waved his hands at her, "Doesn't matter. You're not the first one who thinks I'm female. I chose to become a Gardevoir because I admired my grandmother. Ever heard of Team Charm?"

Both Emily and Rosa answered "yes", while Jenny just shook her head.

"Oh, doesn't matter… so how can I help you today, madam?"

"I would like to deposit 350 Poké, please," Emily handed over three gold coins and five silver coins to the accountant.

"Alright then. Your name is…?"

"Emily."

"Hold on just a second, I'll go find your book," the Gardevoir disappeared into the building behind him, before coming back out with a notebook that had a three-pointed footprint on it. He quickly scribbled down some calculations with his quill, passing a receipt to the Empoleon and taking the monetary amount with him, "Done."

"Thank you," Emily gave a small nod of appreciation, "I have not seen you at the counter before. Is this your first time?"

"You got that right, madam," said the accountant, "I only arrived in town a fortnight ago. The old Persian wanted me to start out organising her books. Today is my first day doing customer duty."

"I see. Well then, have a nice day, young man."

A few minutes later, Emily, Rosa and Jenny arrived at the entrance to the training dojo. The iron poles which made up the gate were in holes underneath their feet. Several feet above their head was a wooden plaque with a monkey's face on it. What's more, the hair on top of the monkey's head resembled a large flame billowing to the east.

While the exterior of the dojo looked like someone's holiday house, the interior design was eccentric. Large sheets of wood, painted pale green, layered the whole reception floor. The walls were grey but smooth, unlike its stony exterior. Large, burgundy beams were fixed to the walls as weapons rack. Some held wooden poles, while others have swords and polearms with blades and spiked hammers. The only time Jenny had seen weapons like those was in a museum, and the thought of someone picking it up and welding them in front of her face disturbed her slightly. Looking up, several Luminous Orbs were hung from the wooden beams by wires, all nine of them arranged in a 3x3 formation.

"Welcome to the dojo, madam," a voice spoke up, followed by the sound of a door closing, "How may I help you?"

A slender fire ape walked over to them in a crouching posture. His head resembled closely to the wooden plaque outside – a flame on top of his head, pointy ears and white fur surrounding his reddish face. The same white fur decorated his torso and lower section of his legs, while his limbs are brown with swirly, golden pads attached to his joints. Poking out from underneath the hand pads were blue, human-like fingers, and the same cobalt blue were visible on his toes.

"My granddaughter is here to do some training," Emily explained, "But I wonder if the Torchic and I could have a session with you today, just to see where she is at with her fighting skills."

"Well then, Rosa," the Infernape turned to the Piplup, "You're early today. Mister Blastoise isn't here yet, but he'll be arriving in a couple of minutes. You can wait for him in his room."

"Okay. Well, I guess I'll see you guys later."

As Rosa headed over to a door on the far left, the Infernape spoke to Emily, "I'm assuming the tuition fees will come out of the sum you've paid at the beginning of spring, madam?"

"That is correct."

"Alright, that's settled. Come over here," Infernape ushered the duo towards a set of stairs at the back of the room, "And what is your name, young lady?"

The Torchic introduced herself and, feeling the Empoleon's warning taps on her back, wisely decided to leave out the human-turned-Pokémon part in her story. Jenny was halfway through explaining her problem with fire-breathing and how she wasn't able to summon energy like Rosa, when the Infernape interrupted her with a hearty laugh.

"That's because you weren't supposed to do what the Piplup did. Different species of Pokémon conjure up their elemental attacks in different ways," said the fire-type as he opened a door, "You should have a flame sac within your body, and that's where you draw your fire power from."

_Flame sac?_ In her mind, Jenny pictured one of her organs on some kind of everlasting fire. Once again, the Torchic found her common sense being challenged as she stared down at the orange fur on her body, "So… how do I summon the fire?"

"That's what I'm about to show you," Infernape stepped into a rather dirty-looking space. The walls, which were once pale grey, have been covered with burn marks big and small. The floor was dirt ground, with potholes and wayward rocks everywhere, "This is one of the more fireproof rooms in the building so if anything goes wrong during our session, the rest of the dojo will not be affected."

_It could use some cleaning up, though._ The Torchic thought, while Emily locked the door behind her.

"Okay, young lady. Stand over there," Infernape instructed, "Can you take a deep breath for me?"

Feeling stupid, Jenny complied with her new instructor's words and closed her eyes. She didn't think anything in her body was acting out of the ordinary. Although, now that she's concentrating, when she was breathing in her torso did begin to warm up somewhat…

"Now, breathe out as quickly as you can through your beak."

_What?_ She wanted to question the meaning behind this exercise, but did what she was told. As if on cue, a quick rush of hotness began to escape from what felt like her lungs, up her throat and out of her beak. It caught Jenny completely off-guard – she yelped through the chaos and fell backwards in shock. There wasn't any fire, but the Empoleon standing a few feet away could see the background in front of the Torchic's beak turn blurry. It was a sign of how superheated her breath was, and Jenny was scared.

_Whoa. T-t-that was…! Oh my goodness. I'm lucky not to get burnt for this!_ Her laryax and trachea, which were in the direct path of the heat, had started to cool. Nevertheless, part of her brain was still worried about her failed attempt damaging her vocals. Tentatively, she opened her beak again, this time sounding out a music note like an opera singer. It came out a few notes below the one she was supposed to hit, but at least she got some relief out of it, knowing her actions had not put her voice into permanent retirement.

"Are you feeling alright, Jenny?" Emily asked.

"Is this the first time you've tried to breathe fire?" said Infernape, his right hand rubbing his chin, "The look on your face reminded me of kids in my junior class."

"No, it isn't," the Torchic replied, slightly insulted at the Infernape's comment, "I've coughed out embers before."

"Mind if I ask how you did it?"

"Umm…" Jenny waded through her memories of yesterday's events, "One time, Rosa was patting me on the back and some came out of my mouth… I think that's about it?"

"Well, you definitely inhaled enough air to ignite some fire, but I can think of two possibilities why your attempt wasn't successful," said Infernape, "Either your flame sac is underdeveloped, or it's a confidence issue. Tell you what, why don't you try jogging around the room first? It might help agitate your flame sac and make fire breathing a bit easier."

"Okay," the exercises were similar to what a high school student would do in a PE class, and Jenny did two laps around the room without much objection before returning to her original spot, her heart now beating a little faster. Repeating the original instructions from Infernape, she forced the air out of her beak. The same thing happened, it didn't work._ Right... run around a bit more, stop to breathe in and out, repeat process._ On the fourth turn, the Torchic began to feel bored from jogging monotonously around the room and flopped onto the floor, annoyed.

"I can't do this!" she whined.

"Don't be like that, young lady," Emily reprimanded, "Bad attitudes will get you nowhere."

"But it's impossible! I wasn't born as a Pokémon to begin with!" the complaint saw Infernape scratching his head in confusion. Thankfully, that was quickly dispelled by Emily who explained the outburst as a result of Jenny's frustration messing with her mind - and that she was being a silly girl.

"Please, just try your best," the fire ape extended his arms to help her up, "We're barely ten minutes into the lesson and you're already complaining."

Without thinking, Infernape gave Jenny an encouraging pat on the back, just as the Torchic sucked in a lungful of air. As she released it, she heard a sound from inside her head similar to a hundred Christmas crackers exploding simultaneously. This was followed by a rush of heat from her torso to her beak. Except this time, Jenny could feel little pellets of something stinging her throat, grazing past her tongue and coming out as spit fires the size of blueberries. Never mind the fact she was shaking and having difficulty staying upright, Jenny was panicking because she did not know how to stop it and the spit fires was making her throat and mouth sore. _Should I close my beak now? But what if I swallow the fire and end up detonating myself or something?_

"That's it! Keep firing until you run out of breath!" suddenly, Jenny gave a disgruntled yelp as Infernape picked her up. She swivelled her head in response, and her projectile of embers swept across the room towards Emily's direction. As if on instinct, the Empoleon lifted up her steel flippers, stoically withstanding the attack.

Five more seconds later, Jenny finally lowered her head, puffing in exhaustion. Sweats were busy jostling for their spot on her forehead, and her heart was racing from fear and adrenaline coursing through her veins.

"Emily… sorry…" she said huskily, as Infernape lowered her to the ground.

"It's alright, dear. I am a water type," Emily brushed off the soot circles as if it was merely dirt, "I can cope with your Ember attack. On the other hand, Mr Infernape, I wonder why you decided to pick Jenny up. It was quite a dangerous move."

"Sorry about that, madam," Infernape bowed apologetically, "I thought by picking her up, I can shock her and cause her flame sac to be agitated enough to ignite more air."

_Well, it worked._ The Torchic thought, grumbling. Her first proper experience with fire breathing had booked its place in the myriad of her memories. Yes, it was exciting, and it took her one step closer to the exploration team goal – but the image of fire coming out of her own mouth shook her greatly. She wanted to know how those stuntmen and stuntwomen who manipulate fire as a part of their daily job manage to overcome their fear, and stay calm under the watchful eyes of their audiences. Jenny swayed on the spot, she thought her head had somehow gained some weight during this time.

"Let's take a break," the Empoleon suggested, walking over to the Torchic. Infernape nodded in agreement and went outside, presumably to get a drink and give the two females some privacy.

"Are you feeling okay, Jenny?"

"I-it's just…" she replied rather breathlessly, "It's cool, now that I know how to breathe fire, but it's also scary… I mean… I could easily burn down someone's house or injure my friends if I'm not careful!"

"Calm down. That is why I brought you to the dojo. Infernape is a fire type himself. He has enough expertise to guide you through the basics of using your element."

"But—"

"If this is too much for you, we could always go back to information gathering."

The Torchic whirled around, "N-no!" she protested, "You've said it yourself – we are less likely to find out what happened to me that way!"

"I did not say that," Emily defended, "To be honest, all of the three options have the equal probability of helping you reach your goal. However, the last option allows you to interact with different Pokémon, it probably make you a lot less suspicious in front of other residents, and... well, I guess I have always been an advocate of learning through practical experience instead of books."

"Emily?"

"What is it?"

"Elisa chose exploration team as her option. From what I've read she could fight well, despite her lack of experience. Why can't I be like her?"

A small sigh escaped Emily's beak, her eyes were scrutinising a large burn mark on the wall, "If you read the future chapters, Elisa actually had prior knowledge of the Pokémon world before she arrived. That is why she was in a better position than you."

"But wasn't her amnesia worse than mine?"

"Apparently, it did not steal away her knowledge of our world. It only took the memories she had as a human."

"Right…" Jenny wanted to ask more, but Infernape was back in the room. Sandwiched between his right arm and the side of his body was a large piece of wood on a metal stand. It had a lot of scratches and cracks on it.

Seeing the curiosity on her face, Infernape quickly explained, "We'll take a break from elemental attacks for the time being," he placed the stand in the middle of the room, "Now, I want to see how well you can use physical attacks."

For the rest of the session, Jenny tackled, scratched and – on one occasion – headbutted into the training dummy in front of her. She found it easier to deliver the blows than trying to use fire. Infernape sat on the sidelines, giving her advice on how to maximise her movements and use momentum to her advantage. At the end of the lesson, he graded her physical attacks as average. With a reminder to practice more on using fire, Emily and Jenny greeted farewell to the Infernape.

Outside the gate, Rosa had been waiting for the duo with three toffee apples in her flippers. The Torchic seemed excited by the prospect of a free snack from her friend, until she tried to take it from her, and realised – for the umpteenth time – she doesn't have hands to hold it with.

"It's okay! Just try holding it with your talons!" Rosa suggested, causing Jenny to raise her eyebrows in disbelief, "I've seen a Torchic done this before! Here, try sitting on this rock."

Doing as she was told to, the Torchic plopped down on a large flat rock, and tried to anchor the skewer between her talons. It seemed to work, until Jenny tried to bend down her head and rip out the flesh – the skewer danced out of her reach, and the law of physics dictated the apple downwards onto the earthy ground below.

"Don't worry. I will hold it for you, Jenny," said Emily, her steel flippers chipping away the dirtied parts of the snack.

The former human groaned in great irritation. _It's hard being a Torchic! Oh well, one step at a time, Jenny._ She took a peck off the apple, tasting the sugary caramel and tart apple flesh in her mouth.

_One step at a time…_

* * *

Just two things to end this chapter: male Gardevoir deserves more love and no, I will not be putting in any 6th-gen Pokémon in my story (I'm only starting to get used to the fifth gen, for Christ's sake) until more details emerge.


	7. Chapter 6 - Conflicts in Thought

It took me too long to get this out. I hit a block during this chapter while writing out the last bit there. That, and I started my first semester at university two weeks ago. Hence the delays.

I'm sorry I kept everyone waiting so long for this.

EDIT: Shiii-I forgot to add a Pokepedia entry. Fail.

* * *

**The Story of the Time Saviours - A biography composed through various interviews with Treasure Town citizens and Team Destiny themselves, describing the events of Time Crisis, and how it came to its resolution. It is one of the most well-known stories in this century. The book can be identified through its black cover - which symbolises the perpetual darkness of a now-non-existant future - and the enigmatic, hexagonal Time Gear imprinted on it.**

**Poképedia, Section 1: General**

* * *

It was way past midday when the trio finished their toffee apple. This was mainly due to Jenny's slow eating habits, which had, so far, proven to be a quite frustrating thing for her. At least, Rosa and Emily were patient and polite enough not to say anything about it.

"Gran, can I go to the beach?" the Piplup asked, "I want to see if there are good waves down there, maybe make some more sand art again."

"Would you like me to come with you?" said the Empoleon.

"Why?" said Rosa, "Are you worried about Team CBE? Don't worry I've got Jenny with me now. Plus, I think they're still scared about yesterday."

"It's not the troublesome youngsters I am worried about. If you go swimming or surfing, Jenny will not have anyone there to keep her company on the sand."

"Oh no, I'll be fine!" the Torchic quickly protested. Being a teenager, she did feel slightly embarrassed at the thought of needing someone to be with her. "I can always walk around and explore the rock pools!"

"Are you sure? It might be slippery on the rocks. I don't want you accidentally fall into the water and die as a result of it."

"Emily, I'm not three years old," said Jenny, sounding slightly annoyed, "If I can get an average grade for physical combat, I can handle a bit of water on a rock."

"There is no need for that kind of attitude, young lady," the Empoleon frowned as they approached the crossroad, "Alright. If you feel spending the day with the elderly is too embarrassing for your egos, I shall retreat back home by my lonesome self."

The Piplup buried her face in her flippers. "Gran, don't be like that—"

"Well, are you telling me that is not the truth? I know how youngsters think nowadays," Emily replied haughtily, but the smile which followed gave out her true feelings, "I was only joking. Since it is the weekend, there should be other Pokémon down at the beach so it's a bit safer. Still, I think the two of you should exercise extra caution while playing down there, especially you, Jenny…"

"Alright, I get it, Emily," the Torchic sighed, before both of them greeted the grandmother farewell.

True to Emily's words, the beach was slightly busier than yesterday – but not by much. Wingull and Pelipper aside, several blue monkeys were having a beach volleyball game with a coconut shell. A majority of them looked the same, with broccoli-shaped hair, blue clover tails and cream-coloured body. However, the Torchic could've sworn one of them had a lighter turquoise on his hair and body markings. Watching the Panpour lobbing the coconut over here and over there, Jenny thought it was going to be hard for the water monkeys to hit it with their bare arms. That is, until she saw how one of them overcame the problem – the Panpour simply brushed aside the turf of blue curls on his head, and fired a jet of water from his tail. His Water Gun projected the coconut over the net made of reeds, before the brown hard shell of their 'ball' met the face of one opponent.

_Ouch._

"Those Panpour always come here to play on the weekends," Rosa commented, "It looks fun."

"Do they let their audiences play? You should join in. Come on, you're a water type like them!"

"You're kidding, right?" she turned to her, "The last time a Piplup used Water Gun was over a hundred years ago. Our physiques aren't built for that attack."

"Can't you use your…Bubble attack or something?"

Rosa shook her head, "Nah. It won't be as strong. Plus, I can't multi-task while summoning my attack. I haven't gotten that far in training."

"Is it just me, or do you seem to lack self-confidence?" Jenny questioned, before nudging her in the players' direction, "Come on, if you want to play with them, then you should."

"No—Jenny, I don't really like playing—"

"Is there a problem here, ladies?"

One of the sideline audiences had stepped up. He looked similar to a Panpour, but his stature was taller and larger than the rest of them. His hair, instead of standing upright like the volleyball players, cascaded down in curls. The spiky collar had grown into a large blue bib, and his tail had developed from clover to the shape of a water sprout.

"Umm… my friend here—"

"N-no, there's no problem here," Rosa covered the Torchic's beak, and proceeded to drag her away. The Simipour scratched his head, his raised eyebrow spelt out his momentary curiosity before it was all dispelled by time, and he turned his attention back to the game.

"What was that for?" Jenny pouted.

"_Jennifer_," the Piplup began, ignoring the slight groan from her partner, "I didn't come here to play with them. Don't just force someone into doing something they don't want! Besides," she peered at the group to her left, who was throwing one of their teammates up and down in celebration of another point, "When I said my attack is not strong enough for their game, I was just telling the truth! Bubbles are supposed to be weaker than solid jets of water."

"Okay, but come on, _Rosalind_," the former human mimicked Rosa's tone, "Quit being modest about your abilities. I saw what you did in Beach Cave, and it's a lot better than what I did today!"

"Well, what can you do?" asked the puzzled Piplup.

"This," at the drop of the word, the Torchic began jumping actively on the spot. The strangeness of her exercise brought a few raised eyebrows from some Wingull and Rosa, but the Piplup decided to refrain from questioning Jenny's purpose. Meanwhile, as soon as Jenny felt her torso warming up, she stopped immediately and took a deep breath.

_Now what was it… breathe out as quickly as possible, wasn't it? I—_

_Floosh!_ The small pellets of fire began shooting out of her beak. Her warm breath, coupled with the close vicinity of her fire and the Piplup's yell of horror, was enough to switch on her anxiety mode. _Ahh! What do I do? What do I do?_ Accidentally swivelling her head in another direction, several audiences had to duck for cover as the ember flew over their heads. Mentally apologising for the mishap, Jenny twisted her head back to Rosa's direction. This time, however, a stream of bubbles greeted her eyes. Bullets of red and yellow were soon reduced to harmless wisps of smoke, before it was carried off by the gentle sea breeze.

"Watch where you're aiming that, idiot!" one of the spectators shouted angrily.

"Yeah! Keep away from our net!"

"I'm sor—" Jenny's verbal apology was soon interrupted by a stinging sensation in her throat, and she had to cough out the rest of her sentence, "I—didn't—mean it—"

"Whoa. There, there…" Rosa gently patted her back. From yesterday's experience, she had expected the Torchic to fail, or at most deliver harmless sparks. The Ember attack made her jump out of the skin and, if she hadn't ducked just in time, she probably would've ended up with more than just a sting on her right flipper. "Don't try and speak now. Have a rest."

After several more moments of comfort and assurance, the Torchic spoke up in a slightly raspy voice, "I-I… thank you."

"You're having trouble controlling it, aren't you?"

"Uh-huh," Jenny coughed a bit more to clear her voice, "I did the same thing with Mr Infernape today. Damn it, why is this so hard?" she complained.

"I said it'll be hard, didn't I?" Rosa motioned her to sit down with her. A loud cheer from behind them told her one of the teams had just scored another point.

"How old do you have to be to master your first elemental move, anyway?"

"Well… unless you're a Magikarp, children normally show signs of their first elemental move at the age of eight. Thirteen when they fully master it," Rosa explained, "Children with regular training can develop at an even earlier age."

"Are you serious?" Jenny exclaimed, "I'm fifteen! I—"

Holding up her flipper, the Piplup tried to calm her partner, "W-wait! Not everyone masters their first elemental move at that age!" she interrupted, "There are a lot of Pokémon out there w-who go through their life without the need to excel in that!"

"Rosa, I'm a fire type Pokémon. I have to be able to do something like that. This is bad."

"Don't worry! I had a lot of problems as well, when I started learning about my element. Sometimes I would look at other water type Pokémon and wished I could be like them, just—you know," the Piplup waved her flipper at the air, "Poof. Make miracles happen."

"Hey, you're knowledgeable," Jenny remarked, turning back to the ocean view, "Plus, you have your grandmother helping you, and you're almost to the point of mastering this bubble blowing business. I can't imagine what kind of problem you would have."

The Piplup looked hesitant, as if she was contemplating about something. Her eyes were focused on a small piece of driftwood which was being pushed to and fro by the waves in front of her. She dug once into the sand beside her, before lifting her flipper to examine the fine particles dropping off from it. Another loud cheer reached their ears, but Rosa did not bother to turn her head, instead choosing to pat off the sand from her skin.

_Yeah, well… I'm a slow learner like you, but of course you can't imagine the kind of problem _I _would have…_

"Hello? Earth to Rosa! Are you there?"

"Yeah, I'm here," she replied slowly.

"You zoned out for a bit there, are you alright?"

"Mmmhm."

The Torchic tiled her head sideways, as if she was a detective trying to scrutinise for any details, "Okay, but you seemed a bit—"

"S-say, you said you wanted to explore the rock pools or something, right?"

The abrupt change in topic caught the Torchic off guard, "Um… yeah. I wanted to see what else there is around the beach area, probably familiarise myself with it as well."

Standing up, the Piplup motioned her to the far right side of the beach, around where her sand sculpture had been the day before, "That whole of left side is occupied by the outer areas of Beach Cave. It's too rocky for most citizens to explore. Rock pools on the right side are safer. Come on, I'll show you."

Being someone who had already experienced the lack of friction on the watery terrain, Jenny stuck close to Rosa and concentrated on walking safely, for most of the time. On the other hand, Rosa was secretly glad the Torchic haven't delved further into her personal matters. Okay, maybe the Piplup did feel a little uncomfortable talking about her life, but then again, if Jenny had asked a similar question with other good Treasure Town citizens, most would have done the same thing – that is, maintaining an acceptable distance between them and the conversation starter. After all, Rosa knew they've only known each other for a very short time, and the Piplup wanted to make sure the Torchic doesn't overstep any boundaries.

_I wonder if all humans are this nosy… maybe their personal boundaries are different?_ The Piplup thought, while Jenny was plodding at a piece of abandoned green coral on the ground. Rosa turned over a brown star-shaped shell, her flipper tracing every bumps and scratches on its surface. _Well, we are going to become teammates in the near future. Perhaps that was her attempt at getting to know me better…_

On the other hand, while Rosa had her back to the Torchic, Jenny was peering over her yellow wings. Anywhere beyond the cliff which made Rosa's home - Sharpedo Bluff, they called it – was mostly submerged in water, and the few column of limestone which remained in view looked anything but inviting, with large waves threatening to knock off anyone who dared to stand on them. The shells and corals sure were pretty to look at, but the girls did not have a bag to collect them, and it's not like they could spend the whole hour commenting on the colours and shapes of them. The exploration on the rocks had lasted fifteen minutes before Jenny felt everything was too quiet. Yesterday, she didn't feel that way, because the times which were not spent in conversation could be filled by fighting off rogue enemies.

_Maybe she's the type of person – I mean, Pokémon – who doesn't like to talk much? But we chatted a lot yesterday… or maybe she's just tired. I don't like to talk when I'm tired._ Jenny thought about heading back to the volleyball game, but the image of angry spectators shouting at her made the Torchic abandon that idea very quickly.

"Rosa?"

"Yes?" the Piplup turned around slowly.

"So... what's that you've got there?" said Jenny lamely, trying to start a conversation.

Rosa flicked off some dirt on its surface, "I was thinking of using it for a sand sculpture," she replied.

"That's a weird hobby."

"It's not like I make sand sculptures all the time. I also make other mediums of art."

"Oh? Like what?" Jenny asked.

The Piplup paused to think, "Hmm… collages with sticks and stones, clay pots… I mostly create art with natural resources. Sometimes, if Mister Smeargle has extra coloured clay he'll make them into paint and sell it in the markets. And on special occasions, gran might give me sticks of charcoal to work with."

"Is it your dream to become an artist?"

Rosa blinked, "Sort of, I guess. I want to be both an artist and explorer at the same time, because I can then get more inspiration for my art through exploration."

"So… like a travelling artist?" in her mind, Jenny pictured the Piplup wearing a beret while carrying a worn-out bag filled with paintbrushes and parchments.

A giggle. "I guess you could say that, but I don't want to leave gran, so the closest thing to travelling that I could do is to be in an exploration team."

"I see…"

As the day went by, both girls returned from the rock pools and went over to a more sheltered part of the beach, where they practised their own fighting skills against the wide open sea. When they felt tired, Jenny and Rosa returned to the volleyball game, with extra promise to the Simipour that there won't be any more unexpected shenanigans flying into the field, thank you very much.

By the time they got back home, the awkward conversation had long been forgotten, replaced by hungry stomachs and a great desire to head off to bed early.

* * *

In the following days, Jenny started familiarising herself with Treasure Town and her daily routines with the penguin duo. To her, it was like living in a village on the outskirts of a large city. Everyone seemed to know who's who, but it was expected in such a place. The citizens in town behaved in a way just like what normal humans would do – they shop, gossip and take time to enjoy what life has to offer. On any normal day, Emily would send both girls to the dojo for training in the mornings while the old Empoleon went on with the household chores. It was a bit like going to school, except there's more time spent on practical activities than on theoretical stuff, and it's not compulsory for everyone to attend. For the most part Jenny spent her lessons alone with Mr Infernape, but sometimes she would be joined by either a fire pony with blue flames or her teacher's son – a Chimchar who doesn't like to talk much. Truthfully speaking, inviting other Pokémon into the class was part of the fire ape's strategy – if the Torchic could see how normal fire types use and manipulate their element, the images of fire would start to imprint on her mind. He hoped that gradually, the girl can get used to having fire flying out of her beak, and not be scared of it.

When the lessons were over, both girls were left with the entire afternoon for themselves. Since dungeon explorations were off-limits for the moment, Rosa usually took the Torchic to the beach, or a nearby forest to the east of Treasure Town. There, they would spend their time under an old oak tree, reading the two Unown books given to Jenny. It took three days for the former human girl to learn and remember the common berries Pokémon eat, and five days to reach the chapter about the betrayal of Dusknoir the Explorer in "The Story of the Time Saviours". Other times, if they forgot to take the books with them, the time was spent chatting. Jenny usually talked about her experiences in the human world – or rather, the ones she could remember. She was wise enough to stay off the topic about her own parents, not wanting to accidentally trigger the Piplup's negative responses. Rosa, on the other hand, filled the conversation with stories about different citizens of Treasure Town, or exploration teams, though sometimes she would add in a few anecdotes about Emily.

"Did you know gran can make ice sculptures?" the Piplup said one day.

"I find it hard to imagine," Jenny commented, watching as a leaf floated down onto her book. _Wouldn't her large steel flippers get in the way? _She thought.

"When she was younger, she used to live in the Blizzard Islands down south. They would hold an ice sculpture festival every year. Every family would make something out of a block of ice and display it at the front of their homes. At night, they would watch aurora lights in the sky—"

"Wait a minute, I thought aurora lights only occur in the north," she interrupted.

The Piplup raised an eyebrow, "No, they only have it in the south here. What are you talking about?"

"Don't look at me like that! I was taught it's the other way or… well, maybe the aurora lights in our world is different than yours," said the Torchic, "That explains it."

Nodding, Rosa picked up her copy of Poképedia. "Do you miss your world?"

Though the tone was casual, Jenny could not help but felt the thoughts in her mind changing from the smooth traffic on the highway into an arena full of bumper cars. Yes, the past few days had been rather enjoyable, like taking a vacation from the busy city she had lived in. In all honesty, it's not that she haven't thought about her world, since she talked about it like a teacher passing on information to her students, but this question… it was more personal than the usual ones like, "What's a phone used for?" or "How do you watch TV?" _What a question…_

Suddenly, the trees and grass disappeared from Jenny's view, only to be replaced by a picture of the Earth she had came from. White clouds floated over its continents and sapphire oceans, as if the planet was a dancer using the clouds as smoke or veil to magnify their mysterious nature. Before the Torchic could speak, a loud 'whoosh' greeted her ears and she was pulled back – or was the object moving away from her frame of reference? It was hard to tell, but either way, the blue and green planet had begun to minimise in front of her eyes, until it was nothing but a pinprick against a myriad of particle-sized planets and stars. It was then they began swirling on the spot, disappearing into a hole situated directly in the middle of her vision…

_Huh?!_ Her heart was palpitating and she could sense the cold sweat hidden underneath her feathers. Jenny gasped for air as bits of blackness danced out of her eyes, revealing the brown tree bark that was there before.

"Are you okay?" a voice floated into her ear. Jenny did not answer, because fragments of her memories began to surface again, interrupting her thought process. She closed her eyes, and her mind played a movie. There was a brand new bicycle parked outside the fence with a pink bow on it, while two adults – one male one female – stood side by side next to it, waving their arms at her. Their faces were blurred, but she knew they were her parents because she could hear her own childish voice calling for Mum and Dad… and something about her first bike…

"Jenny!"

"H-huh? W-who? What?" the Torchic said breathlessly. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the mess in her head.

"Y-you were staring into space… and then you closed your eyes… and then—"

"Oh, yeah," Jenny tried to stand, but her leg felt as if it had lost blood, and she just managed to stay up with the help of the tree trunk behind her, "Just… thinking about some things."

"What things?"

"N-nothing you should worry about," the Torchic said abruptly.

There was a moment of silence between the two, and the only sound they could hear was a muffled conversation between two birds in the far distance. A gust of wind blew past, carrying fallen leaves and flower petals into the root system of – according to Rosa's description – a thousand year old oak tree.

"Was it something I said?" it was the Piplup who broke the ice.

"It wasn't your fault—"

"Sorry! I'm sorry!" holding up her flippers, the penguin said in a slightly panicked tone.

"It's okay! It just…" Jenny swallowed the lump which was caught in her throat, while her talon pointed at the dirt road to her left, "Caught me out, that's all."

"Are you sure—"

"YES," she snapped, the harsh tone made Rosa jump a bit, "Let's sit down and keep reading."

There was nothing else the Piplup could do but to obey. Like any normal Pokémon would do, Rosa decided to keep quiet and give the Torchic some space – _best way to even out the awkwardness is to wait it out,_ her grandmother always say.

No words were exchanged for a while afterwards. Unown characters on the page raced past the Torchic's eyes, but for the most part she was unable to digest information out of the weird writing, hence the reason why she stayed on the section on seeds for a long time – long enough for one person to brew coffee for everyone in a small café, twice.

It wasn't the first time Jenny had experienced the woes of insecurity – in fact, people had told her without it one becomes an emotionless robot. This time, however, she could feel a tidal wave coming to crash down upon her. _It is possible to get back to my world? What do I do? Would I have to spend the rest of my life like this? But… but that means I'll lose my family, my friends… never to have contact with another human again…_

She could feel another headache coming along. _Cut off from humanity… like being exiled… sounds like something out of a fantasy or sci-fi film, but this is as real as it gets! Oh…_

_Oh my goodness – stop! Why are you thinking so much? At least you're not dead._ Another voice spoke. _Miracles happen. Who knows? There's some strange magic in this world, don't you remember? That story… biography you've been reading – heck, it even said time travel was possible in this world! When was the last time this time travelling business was possible in our world?_

_If there are strange magic, then shouldn't Pokémon be able to enter our world already? Plus, time travelling and my situation are two completely different things._

_Who knows… but you shouldn't lose hope, you know._

"Lose what now?" like a click of a finger, Rosa's voice brought Jenny back into reality.

"Oh! S-sorry, just talking to myself," she mumbled, "Say, Rosa… can I ask you something?"

"Go ahead."

"If you're ever stuck in another world," she stared up into the sky, as if searching for something, "Like an alternate universe… and you can't get back… what would you do?"

The Piplup blinked in response, "T…that's a hard question," she said, frowning slightly as she closed her book.

"Just try your best," Jenny sighed.

"Well…" a wild daisy brushed up against her flipper, so Rosa picked it from the ground and began pulling off its petals absent-mindedly, "I would try my best at finding anything which can help me get back to my world. If there's absolutely nothing which can help me return, I'll be really sad, of course. But… I guess I'll try and live out the rest of my life in that world, simple as that."

"Okay…" It wasn't exactly an encouraging reply. _She'll only be 'really sad' about it?_ _Would it be easier for Rosa to cope, if she had been put in my situation? _Jenny was reminded of her own accidental and tactless question on Rosa's parents. _Maybe she thought it'll let her forget about her own tragedies… she doesn't have much to lose—no! There's Emily as well! But she's old—_

_Wait, what are you thinking? This is barely logical! It's bull-crap! She's just being realistic, that's all! Ask Emily and you'll probably get the same answer! You're just thinking that way, because you're annoyed at the fact no one knows how to empathise with you!_

"Mind you, I'm just saying it to answer your question. If that actually happened to me I might do things differently."

"I know that," said Jenny, rolling her eyes.

"This is what you're worried about, isn't it?" seeing the frown on the Torchic's face, Rosa pressed on, "Listen, I know I can't sympathise with your situation, but I don't think your problem is impossible to solve. A lot of things happen in our world, you know. If Team Destiny can return to their world using the Passage of Time, I don't see why a _Passage of the Human World_ shouldn't exist."

An undignified snort echoed throughout the clearing, "Very funny, Rosa."

"It wasn't supposed to be funny…"

But as abstract and absurd as it sounds, it was something the Torchic felt she could lean on for moral support. _'Passage of the Human World', huh? Well, at least one of us has a sense of humour…_

Closing her book with her talon, she said, "Do you think we should head back now? Don't want Emily to send out search parties now, do we?"

"If you say so," Rosa got out her bag, "Wish you could evolve soon, though. I'm always the one carrying things," she pouted.

In the past few days, Jenny did have a skim over the term 'evolution'. She understood it as a process in which Pokémon grow up into another form, though Rosa said that's not always the case. _Not sure what she meant by that, but I know the Pokémon I can evolve into has arms. That would be great…_

_You see? Everything is different, even the concept of evolution is played out differently! _Her positive conscience was at it again. _Chin up and stop thinking so much! Why shouldn't a 'Passage of the Human World' exist for you?_

Indeed…

* * *

One of the more attractive events in Treasure Town would have to be the Citizen's Fair. It's held once every three new moons, and there are four of them every year. Each Citizen's Fair served as a build-up to the Moonlight Festival, which the residents used to mark the end of a year. Two days before the event, a team of Pokémon would put up posters and inform as many residents as they can to get the words out. Jenny found out about it when Mr Infernape told her about the poster outside his dojo, and that her lesson tomorrow was cancelled because he's preparing a performance showcasing the skills of his students.

"The Citizen's Fair normally starts at midday, depends on how many visitors are in Treasure Town at the time," said Emily, "If there are more Pokémon present, the organisers may start the fair a little bit earlier."

It was the night before the event, and the three of them were eating dinner as Emily explained all that would be happening tomorrow. "Most citizens of Treasure Town will have homemade merchandises on display for sale, and there are a lot of stalls holding the preliminary rounds of various competitions."

"I know what a fair is, Emily. Humans in my world often hold them in school playgrounds," Jenny carefully stowed a Rawst Berry behind the bowl with her beak. Stacked high with apples was the fruit bowl in the centre, and the Torchic could use the obstacle to hide the disgusting piece of fruit away. Since it was Rosa's turn at packing up the dishes this week, Jenny knew the Piplup won't make a fuss about the whole thing.

"Bet you've never participated in some of our competitions," said Rosa, her flipper gesturing at the air, "Like the Air-ple Competition, where competitors use their attacking skills to either shoot an apple at the greatest height, or keep their apple in the air for as long as possible."

"And the apple can't be damaged?" asked the Torchic.

"Of course not. That's why it's a competition only for the skilful."

"Will the Speed Reading Competition be on?"

"I suppose it would, although Mr Unown did say he will be holding his own stall at the Fair," said Emily, "Maybe he had already found a helper to look after his stall, while he judges?"

"Why is Mr Unown holding a stall, anyway?" Rosa took the bowl Emily had handed to her, "He normally doesn't sell books during this time."

"Apparently he had some surplus books and materials he needed to get rid of quickly," the Empoleon answered, "Still, maybe the library could do with some more money for renovation. Mr Unown always complain about the state of the library's basement. He said it is too small and dirty to store books."

"I see," the Piplup was reaching for Jenny's bowl, when the larger penguin lightly flicked her smaller flipper to the side. Giving a yelp of surprise, Rosa accidentally knocked the piece of wood over, revealing the berries hidden behind it.

"Jenny…" Emily's voice rose like someone had turned the volume knob up in a very quick manner, "I do not tolerate the act of wasting food in my home, do you understand?"

Being caught 'red-handed', Jenny lowered her head, muttering, "But I really did find them disgusting—"

"I do not take that as an excuse," said Emily, her voice matching that of a military officer, "And Rosalind, you should not be helping her either," at this, the Piplup scratched her head, embarrassed, "As punishment both of you will have to eat the berries, or you will not go to Citizen's Fair."

Not wanting to miss out on tomorrow's actions, the Piplup obediently picked up three of them and shoved them all in her beak. The Torchic glared at Rosa, as if annoyed at her for 'selling her out' like a traitor, before taking a deep breath and picked up one of the remaining four Rawst Berries. If she was still a human, she would've probably tried to argue her way out of it, but a glance to the serious look on Emily's face, and her large stature as an Empoleon… Jenny didn't think she can convince her otherwise.

"Try not to keep them in the mouth for too long," the Empoleon's voice floated into her ear, "The juice will permeate into your tastebuds, making it harder to swallow."

Too late – breathing through her nose, Jenny could sense the bitterness attacking her saliva, trying to drain out all her other taste sensations. She pulled her face, her cheeks looked as if they have been sucked in and her eyebrows were threatening to make a head-on collision with the top of her eyes.

Relief finally came when Rosa held a glass of water to the Torchic's beak, but even her rescuer could not hide the giggles which reverberated through to the trembling glass held in her flipper. Oh, how she was glad her tastebuds isn't equipped with a natural hatred for bitter food.

* * *

Hovering in mid-air – by means of air, psychic powers or water – were several apples in front of a brown tent. The organiser stood by the side, his slanted, triangular eyes supervising each apple carefully. Suddenly, he clutched his right claw, and the hoses which protruded from the brown shell on his back shot a large column of water. Its victim, a pink beast with a dazed expression on his face, was immediately sent crashing into a tree behind him, groaning as he felt the rough spikes of his grey, spirally and parasitic shell tail digging into his back.

"Disqualified because you were using both water and your psychic abilities to cheat in this competition," the large blue turtle walked over. Spreading out his stubby arms, he turned to the rest of the competitors and spoke in a booming voice, "Heed this warning – if you're caught cheating, you'll end up like him!"

"Ouch," Jenny cringed as she watched the drama unfolding on the sideline, "That has to hurt a lot! And how can he tell that pink thing was cheating, anyway?"

"He wasn't even cheating properly," said Rosa, while the Slowbro limped out of the mini-arena on the grass outside the dojo, "Everyone could see the purple glow around his apple, didn't you notice it? You were supposed to do one thing only."

Citizen Fair had started out with a bang, when a little tan clay doll came out into the centre stage situated in the main square. Jenny thought some magician had brought out a spinning top that could stay upright by itself, until the 'spinning top' moved its arms and the orange markings – drawn on the Pokémon's body and around the top of their eyes – began to glow pink. All of a sudden the crowd around them gave a collective gasp as daylight turned to darkness, and the only thing visible was the clay doll standing to the front. Another wail later, and the Baltoy launched himself high up into nothingness…

…or so they thought. Five seconds later – BOOM! A deafening explosion greeted the crowd, as bright flashes of red, yellow and white caused all to block their sight. Ears ringing, some audiences mumbled a few curses before opening their eyes. Lights had already dissipated by then and they found themselves back in the normalcy of Treasure Town, their head and body showered with rainbow confetti still raining from the sky.

Other than a few young children who weren't accustomed to scary magic tricks, everyone gave appreciative applauses as a few volunteers quickly cleared the stage for the next act. Jenny, Rosa and Emily were all standing at the back row – or at least, Emily was. Due to their short heights, Rosa was actually clinging onto her grandmother's shoulder, while Jenny was held above the ground by the Empoleon herself. Obviously, the Torchic was quite embarrassed by this notion, and the Piplup quickly tried to assure her the notion was normal by pointing to Mr Infernape, who was also doing the same thing for the sake of his son.

"I haven't needed that kind of help since I was four," she grumbled.

"Well, do you want to see the show or not?" the Empoleon asked promptly, "I could always put you back down."

There were no further objections.

As the Air-ple competition comes to a close, Jenny could see someone coming their way. The Pokémon in question looked exactly like one of the alphabets from her book – or more specifically, it was the capital letter 'I' with an eye in the middle.

"Excuse me, Madam Emily," he spoke in a monotone voice.

"Oh, hello there, Mr Unown," the Empoleon shuffled around to reach him, while Rosa casually muttered a greeting on the side. Jenny said nothing – because it was one of those times she felt the need to reprogram her mind in order to work with the logics in the Pokémon world. To her, Mr Unown looked as if he had just jumped out of one of her books to greet her.

"The Speed Reading Competition is coming up in two programs' time. I need time to prepare it and there is no one tending my books right now. Are you able to assist me in any way?"

"I am more than willing to help," said Emily as she was led away to the side, "But I am curious - why did you ask for my assistance?"

"I do not trust the others when it comes to such matter," was the blunt reply, "I have also prepared a little reward for your troubles."

The Empoleon covered her beak in surprise, while Jenny raised her eyebrows. "Thank you for confiding in me, I'm honoured. But please, keep the reward for something else. I—"

"I must be going now. The other organisers are waiting for me," the Unown interrupted, before levitating off to the backstage. The book stall situated in front of the library looked messy: on the left side, some books had already been stacked up neatly while the rest were piled up to half of Emily's height. A few customers had been standing around, trying to excavate their treasure from the mountain on the right.

"Remember to pay for the books as you leave!" the Empoleon said loudly, picking up a few books, "Rosa and Jenny, see if you can help with anything."

"Why do we have to help that guy? He didn't ask for us," the Torchic muttered, "I'm going to miss out on the other events now!" Nevertheless, she started picking out a few tree leaves which had landed on the pile of books.

The Piplup glanced around before scooting closer to her partner, "I think Mr Unown fancies gran, but it's hard to tell because of the way he talks."

A snicker escaped Jenny's beak, "Oh wow, really?"

"Well, that's just a stupid theory. Don't tell gran I said it, though."

"So where have he been in the last two weeks?" Jenny examined a book with a gilded acorn. "I thought Emily said he's a good librarian, but these books are pretty dusty!" With that, she blew off some of the greyness clinging to the red cover. Some of the particles flew up her nose and she couldn't help but cough in response.

"I think he's been away on vacation," Rosa flipped open one of the books, "I—oh! This is a nice art book!" she exclaimed, before carrying it over to her grandmother, "May I please have this, gran?"

"Okay, but that is coming out of your allowances for this week…"

Looking around her, Jenny could see the other stalls which lined up the street. By now, most had left the centre stage and were meandering through to other activities held around Treasure Town. The Kecleon brothers had somehow came out with a bunch of rare merchandises. Some had questionable origins - like the opal pendant one of the brothers was holding which seem to emit an eerie black energy. Jenny quickly put her fears to rest by telling herself to regard strange things as the norm in this world. Next to them was a fortune teller's tent, made out of purple cloth with gold and silver stars dotted all over it. The Gardevoir accountant from the bank was minding the entrance, and gave her a little friendly wave when he saw her. All the way to the crossroad on the outskirts of town, there were Pokémon participating in various fair activities or purchasing homemade products from the citizens in town.

Over to the right, little children were tagging along behind their parents or grandparents. Most of them bursting with joy and excitement, as evident through their crisp laughter and waving arms. A small, round blue seal with dotted white belly rolled into town like a soccer ball, much to the amusement of other children. The Spheal didn't seem to mind the attention, though – he simply pushed himself to the side and began circumnavigating around a pink, bipedal pitbull with black-rimmed ear and blue polka dots on her body.

A small smile escaped the Torchic's beak. The atmosphere of the fair gave her the feeling of being immersed in a sea of warmth and happiness. For the first couple of days, she had often felt awkward being around Pokémon other than Emily and Rosa, even having the knowledge and assurance no one was going to find out about her identity as a human. That feeling had now, it seems, been thrown out like a bag of rubbish out into the bins, and the fair was bringing everyone together, regardless of their species, age, gender or identity.

"Oh no!"

As soon as the shouts reached her ear, Jenny turned around, seeing a bunch of parchments carpeting the grass before her. Some stayed while others continued to flap like strange brown birds in the wind. A green figure almost knocked her over as they ran to catch the escaping flyers, while a large, brown beaver strolled up, picking up the remaining pieces from the ground.

"Oh my gosh! oh my gosh! Bibarel, quickly!" a high voice yelled, "Pick them up before they fly away again! I don't want Smeargle to get mad at me for wasting the flyers he drawn!"

"Guildmaster, please calm down…" replied the beaver in a weathered voice, "I've picked them all up. Gee, your voice reminded me of your mother sometimes… yup."

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Jenny asked, furrowing her brows in concern. The large beaver in front of her was mostly covered in light brown fur, with the exception of the bib underneath his neck and his face – which were beige. As he bent down to pick up another flyer, his flat, dark brown tail swept the grass behind him.

"Oh no, we're alright, dear. Thanks for the offer though."

"Phew… I finally picked them all up and—oh! I'm so sorry!" the green figure from before ran back to her partner, wiping her round, yellow chequered face with her leafy hands, "I haven't injured you or anything, have I?"

"Oh no! I'm fine!" the Torchic replied quickly, looking at the sunflower Pokémon in front of her. She couldn't see the flyers clearly, but she could vaguely see the picture of an old building at the centre, above the arrays of footprint runes. "So—what's that?"

"Sorry we didn't introduce ourselves!" the beaver cleared his throat, before continuing on in a cheerful tone, "I'm Bibarel and this is Guildmaster Sunflora, yup! We're a guild from up the hills and we train exploration teams! Would you be interested in signing up?"

"Bibarel!"

"W-what did I do this time?" the older Pokémon said.

"You sound so pushy when you're advertising!" the Sunflora complained.

"In our days this is known as enthusiasm, yup…"

"Well, be a little less enthusiastic, please!"

"Wait, hold on…" Jenny edged a little closer to the duo in front of her, trying to get all the information she could, "D-did you say you train exploration teams?"

Surprised by the amount of interest she received, the Sunflora took out one of the cleaner flyers, grinning as she placed it on the ground before the Torchic.

_"That's right! So, what would you like to know?"_

* * *

...another cliffhanger. Pleasedon'tkillme!

By the way, in that middle part there, Jenny is having a conversation with herself. I didn't want to highlight her conflicting thoughts with anything else because I don't want people to think she's talking with some spiritual figure.


	8. Chapter 7 - New Apprentices

Wow, this chapter went a lot longer than I expected...

EDIT: Oops, found a couple of errors. *facepalm then proceeds to update*

* * *

**Wigglytuff's Guild - headed by Guildmaster Wigglytuff himself, it was coined with the title 'The Best Guild Treasure Town Has Ever Had'. This was mainly due to their involvements in the restoration of time (see "Story of Time Saviours" and "Tales of Wigglytuff's Guild" for more information). Several months after Wigglytuff retired, a natural earthquake in Treasure Town destroyed the lower level of the guild, and the upper level was not repaired until recently. The former location now serves as Treasure Town's post office, though the guild's noticeboards were preserved and available for public viewing.**

**-Poképedia, Section 1: General**

* * *

"I... what does a guild do?" was the first thing that came out of Jenny's beak, "Is it like a school for exploration teams?"

The sunflower Pokémon exchanged a glance with her partner, "Well... sort of. What we do every day is assign jobs to teams, and they have to finish a set amount of jobs each week. Your exploration team basically operate under our organisation."

"So... we work for you?"

"I guess you could say that, yup," answered Bibarel.

Wedged under her talons was the flyer they have given her earlier. Upon closer inspection, Jenny saw details of the picture - large oak trees lined either side of the earthy path, leading towards what appears to be a gate, indicated by two large wooden totem poles painted green, yellow and purple. Beyond it was a small, ordinary-looking dome decorated with sunflowers all around its circumference.

"Well, the information you need are all on the flyer!" said Sunflora cheerfully, her leafy hand flourishing elegantly in front of her, "We're open from sunrise to sunset, so visit us any time if you're interested! Bibarel, let's get going. We need to distribute all this before the fair ends."

"There is no need to rush, Guildmaster..." the more elder one grumbled. He shuffled all his parchments in order, before giving a polite wave of goodbye to a confused Torchic.

"Was... was that Mr Bibarel?" a voice rang out from her left. Rosa was holding a green leather-bound book in her flipper and she was peering over the worn out spine. "He's always running around doing errands for the guild... I don't even know why he bothers with it."

"Why do you say that?" Jenny turned back quickly to see the duo, but they had already disappeared into the crowd.

"You've got a flyer for the guild, right?" Rosa points at it, "Hardly any exploration teams affiliate themselves with guilds nowadays. Most teams would rather operate independently, and a lot of guilds had pretty much died out in the last few decades. Plus, there is also _that_ incident..."

"What incident?" asked the Torchic.

"About ten years ago, some guild from the northern part of the world were exposed for corruption. Basically, the Guildmaster was pretending to be the local hero by having his exploration teams catching these dangerous outlaws and saving the villagers. Someone investigated the guild and found out the Guildmaster was actually in cahoots with the outlaws, planning misfortunes upon the villagers and reaping in the rewards after each rescue. After that incident, not many Pokémon trust guilds anymore. They'd rather appeal to the police, or to an exploration team individually."

Looking at the flyer, Jenny was unsure of what lies beyond those large wooden doors of the dome. She knew the word 'guild' sounds familiar, and she had just began to realise why - in Story of the Time Saviours, there were several mentions of this "Wigglytuff's Guild", which Team Destiny was a member of.

"What if we join a guild together?"

Even though the idea was nebulous at most, Jenny felt if she didn't announce it soon enough, it would've slipped from her mind. Seeing the frown on Rosa's face, she quickly explained, "W-well... Team Destiny was affiliated with Wigglytuff's Guild, right? Maybe we could try and find this place. They must be one of the few good guilds left, if they were able to produce such a fine team."

Eyes rolled toward the sky, the Piplup asked, "Where are you up to in the book?"

"When the team explored some cave with Team Charm. Why?"

"Wigglytuff's Guild disbanded long time ago, before you and I were even born. It's in the epilogue."

"Oh..." the Torchic lowered her head, sighing, "But..."

"But...?"

She pushed the flyer she had towards Rosa, taking care not to pierce through the parchment with her talons.

"I just thought it might be a good idea, if we give this a try."

A small gust of wind blew in their direction. Rosa quickly snatched up the guild flyer before it could escape her grasp, and began examining its contents. Unlike the Torchic who cannot read footprint runes, she could extract all the details written on the flyer - things such as the location of the guild, conditions upon signing up and a whole lot of information Sunflora had omitted from her brief descriptions to Jenny.

"It says here we need to have some credible evidence of dojo training before they would agree to take us on-" at this, an annoyed grunt from Jenny interrupted Rosa, "Well, I guess they want to make sure whoever they employ aren't completely useless! We could probably get some paperwork from Mr Infernape... what's this? If we sign up to the guild, any profit we earn from missions... we'll only be able to receive a quarter of it?!" said the Piplup, her voice rising, "I... I'm not sure about this..."

"Are you saying you don't want to sign up because the pay isn't good?" said the Torchic incredulously.

"Hey, you would have a problem too, if someone just took a large chunk of what you've earn for nothing!"

"Alright... good point. From what you've said, maybe it's easier if we just form a team by ourselves-"

"Could you girls come here, please?" Emily's voice floated over, three books held firmly in her right claws, "I need a bit of help with the customers."

Exchanging a glance, Rosa quickly stashed the flyer into her illustrations book, "We'll discuss this later, alright?"

"Right..."

As the day went on and the excitement of the fair became a little more subdued, Rosa opened her book to read the flyer again. By now the parchment had already been folded up several times and crease tracks ran through the graphics and texts haphazardly. However, this did not seem to detract the meticulously drawn picture in the centre of it all. Rosa could almost see the artist's hands carefully dotting the grass and blending in various shades of green using whatever fine brushes that were available to them. The trees were drawn in almost the same way, but the artist was able to differentiate the leaves from the grass through variation of brush sizes along with darker paint. The totem poles and the dome stood out with fluorescent colour, yet they were not too flashy because the artist had overlaid their brightness with a watery, translucent brown.

"What if we join a guild?" she muttered.

Truth is, Rosa knew about guilds and, at one stage, had considered joining one. Joining a guild meant she wouldn't have to go through the trouble of finding a teammate by herself, as she would be automatically placed with either another upcoming apprentice or an available team. However, there were many factors which hindered the Piplup's decision in heading down that path, and one of them came from the huge scandal ten years ago. Rosa had heard - from one of her grandmother's friends - what it was like living in that area.

_"We had to live with the fear your home might be under attack, or your loved ones might being kidnapped from you and killed... the only ones who stood a chance against those outlaws were the guild members and we put our complete trust in them! After the revelation, I felt it wasn't safe to live there any longer, so we moved to Treasure Town. I'm telling you, I'll never trust a guild again. The way that guild operated, it covered our once-peaceful village with a blanket of oppression and tyranny. The police said that case was closed, but I beg to differ - after all, most of the so-called innocent guild members were released very soon after their arrest, and I suspect they've already gone back to their old ways of pillaging and deception. The village will never be the same as before. Never."_

The melancholic words of Madam Arbok sent a chill through her spine as she continued to stare at the flyer. While Rosa knew this advertised guild was not operating under evil intents, she had heard tales on its unreliability. Rumour has it the ownership of this guild changes almost once every season, with each subsequent Guildmaster being more incompetent than the ones before them. A normal guild should have at least two graduates each year, but this guild hasn't had any new graduates since the Wave Sisters - and that was almost two years ago. Some say it's a miracle the team even managed to graduate, because most the exams those various Guildmasters came up with were not up to standard, according to Pokémon Federation representatives...

The second-nearest guild to Treasure Town was too far away to reach on foot, and teleportation services to that place only ran twice a day. Furthermore, her grandmother thought it would be too difficult for her to become a boarder at such a young age, thus quickly extinguishing any ideas of her signing up to this alternative.

"What is that, dear?"

"Hmm? Me?" the Piplup turned to face her grandmother. Emily had a pile of books wedged between her two steel flippers and she was in the middle of placing them onto the ground. "Oh, just a flyer for the guild. You know... the one built on the hill outside the small forest to the east."

"Was it the one with that Swanna as the Guildmaster?"

"Um... I think their newest Guildmaster is a Sunflora, gran."

"Oh. Well... it seems like they had another leadership change, again," the Empoleon said, gently placing the merchandises on a piece of canvas cloth, "It is a miracle anyone managed to graduate from that place."

"True..."

"Were you thinking of joining this guild, dear?" Emily asked.

At this, Rosa cleared her throat, "Well, not really. This was more Jenny's idea than mine." The sharp intake of breath from Emily went unnoticed as the Piplup continued speaking, "I think she's trying to follow Team Destiny's example or something. She's convinced this idea will eventually help her find what she was looking for."

"I... see," said the Empoleon quietly, "But if you join her and succeeds in the application process, the two of you would become an official exploration team. This is something you have been dreaming about, right?"

She could feel the blood rush up to her cheeks. "G-gran. Don't say that," the Piplup protested, "It's embarrassing."

"Oh, Rosa..." the Empoleon chuckled before tapping her granddaughter lightly on the back, "Chances like this does not come very often, you know. I know there are various reasons which held you back from becoming part of an exploration team, and most of the time it was out of concerns for your safety. However..." both of her cerulean eyes rested upon the orange chick, who was busy nudging books and chasing away unscrupulous customers trying to get more than they paid for, "You've got company now, and even though she may not seem like the best candidate for a team, she's got something most exploration teams lack nowadays."

"What's that?"

"The desire to help others," said Emily, "It reminded me of someone I... met on my travels, a long time ago-oh!" the Empoleon heard a quiet apology as she felt someone bump to her right flipper. A young, bipedal jackal was on the ground, her blue paws swiftly gathering several scrolls which had fell out of her arms. However, when Emily tried to help the Riolu, she just snatched the scroll out of the Empoleon's claws and ran, leaving behind a small bag of money next to Rosa's feet.

"H-hey!" a louder voice behind the duo caught their attention. Jenny had sprinted over, puffing, "Oh she's gone... did she paid for those?"

"Yeah, she did," the Piplup swung the small bag before the Torchic's eyes, "Say, Jenny, about the guild thing..."

"Yes?"

"Gran and I had been talking about it just then. Do you want to give it a try?"

Three seconds of awkward silence followed.

"W-what-but... didn't you say you don't like the pay condition, or something?"

Seeing the look of disapproval from Emily, Rosa quickly added, "Ye-no! That was only part of it! I didn't trust it because the guild kept having leadership changes, and no one has graduated in almost two years!"

"Wait, graduate? Like... graduating from high school?"

"Decades ago, graduating from a guild meant you or your exploration team are formally recognised in the Federation's Explorers League - to put it simply, it is a list of teams and individuals who can gain exclusive access to things normally unavailable to normal exploration teams," Emily explained, "However, the Federation changed the rules a while back so that even teams without affiliation to guilds can get that recognition. Nowadays, graduation is seem more as a tradition, reserved only for members of their respective guilds."

"Oh yeah, that was another reason why guilds aren't as popular as they were before," Rosa tapped her chin, "Still, guilds still exist because some Pokémon saw graduation as a fast way of getting that recognition from the Federation."

"That is true in some respects. Without a guild, most teams need at least six years before they can get the recognition. Not many teams lasts that long together, and this time constraint was designed to separate true explorers to those who are just looking for their fifteen minute of fame. Teams affiliating with guilds can get the recognition in Explorers League in one or two years - assuming the guild itself is competent of producing good graduates in the first place, of course."

"Emily, you sure know a lot of things," said Jenny, while the Empoleon gave a small nod in acceptance of the compliment, "So... let's see, if Rosa and I were to become a team just by ourselves, it would've taken us a long time to be on this list?"

"That is correct, Jenny."

"So-"

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but YOU TWO GET BACK HERE!" ears ringing from Rosa's outburst, Jenny turned to see a red salamander with a flaming tail scooting away with a book in his arms. His companion - a Piplup just like Rosa - let out a surprised yelp before falling over in his own escapade, smacking his head hard against a rock in front of him.

"Urgh, it's you..." Rosa spat in disgust as she stood in front of the other Piplup, who glared daggers at her, "Thought you've learnt your lesson a few weeks ago, when gran had to bail you out of the police station for stealing a few apples?"

"My granddaughter is right, young man," Emily followed the lead and pulled him off the ground, "I thought you promised your family not to steal? I know they are poor, but you should be thinking of other ways to support them - and hanging out with bad Pokémon is not one of them."

"Don't call my friend that, old lady," the other Piplup sniped back, "And don't meddle in things you don't understand!" With this parting statement, he marched off without his 'merchandises', leaving the old grandmother shaking her head.

"How rude of him," said the Torchic. She was about to comment further when she heard an unusually loud rustling noise. The books left on the ground by the delinquent were all open, its fragile pages flipped back and forth by an invisible hand.

Picking up one of the old volumes, Rosa explained with great distaste, "That boy's father knows gran. His family lives in poverty and we help them whenever we can. Unfortunately, it's him who's always causing trouble and dishonouring his family-"

"Rosalind, that is enough," Emily interrupted sternly, "His mother died long ago, and you know his father does not treat him kindly."

"_At least _he_ still has a father_," Rosa muttered.

Jenny remained silent, shoving her talon under each book and levering the covers to close them. Heck, even a Magikarp can read the atmosphere from here, and know when to keep their mouth shut about other Pokémon's affairs.

* * *

"Sorry about that earlier, Jenny. You didn't have to see that."

"It's alright, I don't particularly mind it."

Dinner time back at Sharpedo Bluff today was a little out of the ordinary, with the main staple food of fruit and berries replaced with delicacies Emily bought from the festival. As someone who liked to keep a watchful eye over her finances, the Empoleon decided to make an exception today, and splash out some money on this bit of luxury. One of the delicacies were roasted chestnuts, which are now cold from being left off the charcoal for too long. Jenny offered to heat them back up, but neither Emily nor Rosa wanted to risk their home for the sake of warm chestnuts. Other food items on the menu included a flask of Miltank Milk and assorted berries covered with Combee Honey. Much to Jenny's delight, the sweetness in the specks of golden crystals masked off most of the bitterness in the Rawst Berry. _Wouldn't it be great if I could eat it like this all the time, so I don't get scolded by Emily for wasting food? _She thought.

Having calmed down from the little incident back at the fair, Rosa nibbled on a chestnut before offering one to the Torchic, "So, about the guild... gran and I had been talking. What do you want to do?"

"Huh?"

"Well, do you want to try this, or go with your initial plan of starting a team by ourselves?" Rosa asked.

"Yeah... it seems like the fastest way I can get information at the moment. I'm sure this... _Exploration League_ thing can get us access to what I'm looking for. But... Rosa, you said you weren't interested in guilds."

A sigh escaped the Piplup's beak. "To be honest, I don't mind it, now that they have the new Guildmaster and all... the last one they had WAS pretty incompetent, I can tell you that much - but I'm willing to give this _Guildmaster Sunflora_ a go."

At the opposite end of the table, the Empoleon patted her granddaughter's flipper. "Do not worry, Rosa. You are permitted to try this. If it does not work out, you girls still have me, right?"

While Rosa was groaning in embarrassment at her grandma's show of affection, Jenny was watching them with a content look on her face. From behind the fruit bowl, the Torchic saw something reminiscent of this boy sitting at the corner of a room. The memory was foggy with many blurred faces and white noise around, but his face was clear as day - a pair of downcast brown eyes, with a smudge of black paint on his right cheek. To the best of her abilities, she remembered the event as a small community gathering at one of those unadorned scout halls, and for one reason or another, the boy was by himself because his parents could not show up for the meeting. Just as he was wandering back to his seat by himself, one of the blurry figures morphed into something clearer - an old woman with short silvery hair. The pair of eyes hidden behind her wrinkles were peering lovingly at the boy as she proceeded to dab his face with a piece of cloth...

"Jenny?"

"Huh? W-what is it?" Jenny asked. At first, she seem a bit fazed as she held her gaze on the space in between the two penguins. It was as if the teacher had left the last of their notes on the board at the end of the day, and she was the exhausted student trying to imprint whatever was on the board into her mind.

"I've made my decision. I'll sign up to the guild with you."

"So... finally?"

"Pardon?"

"You've made your final decision, then?"

"Well, in case you didn't get it the first time," Rosa's voice suddenly became clearer as she spoke a little louder, "You and I are going to sign up to the guild as a team, _together_."

There was a slight delay in Jenny's thoughts as she waited for them to catch up, but when they eventually did, she gave the Piplup a big grin. "Great! Let's get the reference papers from Mr Infernape tomorrow!" she declared.

Rosa, who was halfway through her cup of water, accidentally spat out a mouthful. "J-Jenny, isn't that a bit too *cough* fast?" she spluttered, her right flipper frantically fishing for a piece of cloth to wipe up the mess, "No offence, but what if your fighting skills aren't good enough for them?"

"Well, I thought I've done pretty well in the last few days. Mr Infernape complimented me on my use of physical attacks. He said most of them were quite satisfactory for someone of my age and physique."

"What about your fire attacks, though?" the Empoleon asked pointedly.

"Oh, uhh..." the Torchic picked up a chestnut and set it in the centre of her bowl, "I can always toast this for you if you-"

"NO," Rosa and Emily echoed their wishes unanimously. The Empoleon cleared her throat before continuing on her own, "We will see how we go with the guild. I would not worry too much if I were you, Rosa. A guild has to hold responsibility for new apprentices, to a certain degree," she explained, "When I was living on Blizzard Island, my neighbour's child became an apprentice to the local guild, and he was only ten years old when he signed up. They made him do general duties and he trained with a teacher. He did not get his first mission until he was twelve. To be honest, I have no doubts the both of you will become guild apprentices, the only thing I am worried about is the competency of the guild."

"Gran..."

"Thanks, Emily."

Both girls looked at each other. Jenny was tapping her talons, her emotions awash with feelings of excitement and curiosity at what it would be like to be a guild apprentice. Sure, "Story of Time Saviours" provided a few hints, but to have an experience herself - now that was a completely different matter. She could almost picture it... the Piplup and herself standing in front of the majestic Fogbound Lake water sprout with balls of light flying around them - just like the book had illustrated. _Maybe there's even a secret portal in the sprout that would allow me to go to and from this world as I wish..._

Rosa, on the other hand, inhaled deeply as her mind processed the new pieces of information being handed to her. _This is so much sooner than I thought... I guess Jenny really wanted to find the truth about herself._ If someone had told her a month ago she was going to be in a team the next day, she would've brushed them off as jokes. The Piplup peered out of the Sharpedo's teeth, across the seemingly boundless horizon sitting underneath the moon. Somewhere beyond the small part of the sea she's looking at, there lie stories of islands with impossibly hard mystery dungeons to conquer, an entrance to Temporal Tower that only the chosen ones can access and, of course, her grandmother's home town on Blizzard Island. All those places Rosa had only known from books and anecdotes - they suddenly become more and more realistic to her.

_One day I'll be able to go and explore all those places if I wish to... but for now, I'll have to become a competent apprentice first. _The Piplup thought.

* * *

The next morning, Jenny was eager to head over to Mr Infernape's dojo to get the reference documents. The stoic instructor pondered on the girls' request, before nodding his head and walked back to his office quietly. While they were waiting, Jenny took the chance to practise her physical attacks on a wooden dummy, as if she was reassuring everyone watching her she was a capable fighter. Emily commented that while her improvement was noticeable, she should do a little more work in terms of dodging and deflecting other Pokémon's attacks.

After what felt like a long time, Mr Infernape emerged from behind a door, holding two scrolls of parchment in his right hand. One of them had a blue wax seal while the other had a burgundy-coloured seal on it. "I've made separate documents, because both of you are on different levels in terms of fighting skills. You girls are both welcomed to come back and keep training, until we reach the limit of the fee your grandmother had paid me."

"Thank you, Mr Infernape," said Emily, accepting the documents.

"Good luck, Jenny. You too, Rosa," said the Infernape, his left hand forming a thumbs up.

The trek to the guild took a little more than fifteen minutes or, in Emily's words, the amount of time it takes for her to prepare dinner each night. When the trio stepped out from the small patch of forestry and followed the path up the small hill, they found themselves facing the dome in the advertisement.

_Whoever the artist was, they have done quite a good job making it look fancy._ The Piplup held up the flyer and compared it with the real thing. Feature-wise, the artist did not lie about the totem poles and trees around the dome. However, most of the tree leaves were in a lighter shade of instead of the lush greenery Rosa had been expecting; the paints on the totem pole had long worn off, making the facial expressions on them appear lacklustre. The only decent-looking thing was the recently renovated dome with its sunflowers, but even then, the small pots of yellow paint left outside the perimeter of the dome spoilt the whole aesthetic of the building.

"Shall we?" said Jenny.

Nodding in response, Rosa spoke, "Alright then-"

"STOP."

"Huh? Jenny? Did you say that?"

"I didn't say anything." stated the Torchic.

"Is anyone here?" said Emily, her voice raised slightly but stopping short of being threatening.

"Do not be alarmed. THIS IS SIMPLY A SAFETY PROCEDURE FROM THE GUILD," it was a monotone voice similar to Mr Unown's, but parts of the spoken sentences sounded artificial, like one of those text-to-speech recognition software voices.

"S-safety procedure?" Rosa questioned.

"Just something to keep out unruly Pokémon, I think," Emily replied.

"Oh, right."

A beam of artificial red light skimmed parallel to the trio's bodies, while a loud hum greeted their ears. Jenny, having seen something similar from action and sci-fi movies before, did not react as violently as her two partners (the other two were jumping and yelling at the light being shined on them, much to the Torchic's amusement).

"Analysis complete. Visitor information downloaded into database," the voice rang out again, "YOU MAY PROCEED."

Recovering from the initial shock, the Piplup shook her head, her flipper resting upon her chest, "B-by the name of Arceus! That was weird..."

"Language, young lady!" said Emily. She was back to her usual composure again. An elder like her simply do not act that way, and the Empoleon was thoroughly uncomfortable with the way she was roaring defensively - at a beam of red light, no less! _It could have been a Radar Orb, Emily. Though, it has been a long time since I saw one being used..._

Calmly, Jenny led the way towards the entrance of the dome. If anything that surprised her in that little fiasco, it was her perception of residents in this archaic world, in possession of what appear to be a security system made using advanced technology.

_Or... maybe it's just a magical thing I'll never understand._

It was darker than usual inside the dome. A hole on top of the dome provided them a primitive skylight, while the only working Luminous Orb embedded on the side walls gave them the other source of lighting in this place. There was a cauldron hanging above them, which Rosa assumed to be some kind of chandelier that uses naked flames. It wasn't lit at the moment, mainly due to the warm weather the area had been experiencing this season. In front of them was a set of stairs spiralling down to the ground floor, with safety railings installed on the left hand side. Jenny could tell they weren't there until recently - heck, she could smell the sawdust and paint as they walked down the stairs.

As they reached the bottom, both girls let out a collective gasp. Expecting some dim and claustrophobic room, they were surprised to see a brightly lit space. The structure of the place was that of a semi-circle, and the stairs they descended from was actually set at the middle of its diameter. Flat, rectangular walls to either side of the stairs had notice boards installed, and both boards had envelopes and posters pinned to them. A large area to the left was furnished with many chairs and several large tables, while the right hand side was simply an wide open space. The large arc of the semi-circle had six doors spaced evenly along it, with strange pieces of artefact placed in between each entrance. Upon closer inspection, however, Rosa could see they were statues of various Pokémon - a Meganium made out of mud and sea shells, one wooden Empoleon with a broken trident on their head, a papier-mâché Grovyle holding a lump of metal, smiling Wigglytuff constructed out of sticks and... was that Darkrai chiselled out of limestone?

"I see you have been admiring my artwork, dear visitors," the familiar voice made the Piplup jump, "How may I help you?"

"Mr Smeargle! What are you doing here?" said Rosa happily.

"I'm the cook here, and I'm also in charge of greeting new visitors. It's my normal job, when I'm not holding meetings for the art society," said the Smeargle with the purple-tipped tail, "Though, we haven't had new visitors in a while, so I spend a lot of the time creating art," after shaking Emily's flipper, the resident artist turned to Jenny, "I don't think we've been introduced formally."

"This is Jenny," said Rosa, "She's a... distant relative. We're here to be guild apprentices."

A bow of respect. "How are you, sir?" said Torchic as politely as possible. After all, the Smeargle could play a part in deciding whether they'll be apprentices or not, and Jenny didn't want to make bad first impressions.

"Well, the Guildmaster will be pleased!" exclaimed Smeargle, his left hand knocking on the third door to the left, "Guildmaster! We have visitors!"

"Come on in, Steve," said a muffled voice.

Sunflora's office was cluttered with shelves and chests, and with Emily present, the others had to shuffle around a bit to avoid stepping on scrolls scattered haphazardly around the floor. Behind the flat, stone table, the sunflower Pokémon covered her mouth before dashing around the room, picking up the items off the floor.

"OH my gosh! I'm so sorry about the mess!" said the Guildmaster, before smacking herself several times on the forehead, "Arrgh, I must've made a mess again researching last night..."

"Your apology is accepted, Guildmaster Sunflora," the Empoleon said, while Sunflora hurriedly shoved all the materials into a nearby open chest, "My granddaughter and her... cousin would like to become guild apprentices."

"Really?" her leafy hands clapped together, and Jenny could see their future Guildmaster's face brimming with excitement, "YES! Steve! Thank you! I knew our efforts at the fair weren't wasted! I KNEW IT!"

"Guildmaster... please speak a little softer..." Smeargle replied. Jenny couldn't help but giggle at the sight of Sunflora jumping up and giving her fellow guild member a hug. The beagle was obviously not accustomed to his Guildmaster's way of celebration; he was scratching his head awkwardly.

"Oh! I-I guess I should do this a bit more seriously," the Guildmaster released Smeargle, before sitting back down to her desk, "So, girls. Would you like to introduce yourselves?"

"Well... my name is Jennifer, but please call me Jenny."

"And I'm Rosalind... Rosa for short."

"Right... I'm assuming the both of you came prepared to sign up?" seeing the confusion upon their faces, Sunflora quickly explained, "Like, reference documents and such."

"I believe I have them right here, Guildmaster," said Emily.

_Now that's something befitting my jobs description._ The Guildmaster thought as she broke off the seals from the scrolls nonchalantly. Both girls held their bated breath while Sunflora's eyes scanned over Mr Infernape's writing. Smeargle offered to pour them a glass of water, but it was declined by the trio.

"It seems like the documents are in order!" said Sunflora, the quill in her leafy hands danced circles on the parchment. Behind the desk, Jenny and Rosa both let out celebratory cheers, "Very well. There is only one last thing I require. What's your team name?"

Rosa stopped in her tracks, "Uh… team name?", she turned to the Torchic, "Jenny, what was our team name?"

"W-what?" Jenny, who was recovering from the euphoria, raised an eyebrow, "What team name?"

Jawdrop. "D-don't tell me... e-excuse us for a second, Guildmaster Sunflora," with a strong yank on Jenny's downy feathers, Rosa pulled her to the corner, "Jenny, what is the name for our team? We need to have one to identify ourselves!"

"O-oh," the Torchic said in a strained voice, "Team name? B-but I haven't thought of one-"

"What?!"

"Don't you have a name?" Jenny whispered her rebuttal, "You wanted to be in an exploration team, right? I thought you might have more ideas!"

"The best I could come up with right now is Team Firewater."

"Then we'll go with that-"

"No!" said Rosa, a little louder than usual. Sunflora and Smeargle were both looking at them two expectantly. Emily was frowning at her granddaughter's unladylike outburst.

Jenny knew she had to think fast. _Team Twilight? Eww, no! It reminds me of something... bad. Firewater? Rosa didn't like it... and it's too unimaginative, anyway._ She was never good with team names - the last time she had to do something like this was in a class trivia, and she suggested the terrible name of _Jelly Babies_ that, surprisingly, won the most votes out of everyone in the group. Her eyes glossed over the diamond gemstone hung around Rosa's neck.

_Huh, is that my crown refracting inside the gemstone? It looked almost like a four-pointer star - wait, stars...? Gem..._

"G-Gemstar."

"I-I beg your pardon?" said Smeargle, "Did you say something?"

"Ahem. I-I was just saying... our team name... I remembered now," Jenny toss the Piplup a look to gain some assurance, to which she received a shrug as her reply, "T-Team Gemstar. That's our name."

"Consider your registration complete!" Sunflora finished the form with a flourish. She rolled up the parchment and secured it using blue ribbon, "Steve will now post this off to the Pokémon Federation for you. You will both receive your starter exploration kit either tomorrow or the day after. In the meantime..."

From a box stacked on top of two large books, the Guildmaster took out two familiar-looking gadgets. Rosa recognised them immediately as the Explorer's Badge. "Your badges won't actually be here until the kit comes, but just in case the delivery doesn't come tomorrow, these are temporary badges you can use."

Still, even holding temporary badges was good enough for the Piplup. Jenny, too, was eyeing them with great delight. The Empoleon behind them patted their backs, "Well done," she said, "Guildmaster Sunflora, thank you for taking them in. I hope the guild will treat them well."

"Oh, it's nothing, madam! I... I just hope you'll like us. We're trying to improve the guild to the best of our abilities, ever since Swanna gave up her position to me," Sunflora said with a twinge of sadness in her voice, "I grew up listening to my Mum's story about her time as a guild apprentice. She didn't live long enough to see who I've become today, but I hope she's proud of me..."

"I think she will be," said Emily, "As long as you put in the efforts of running the guild, and stick with your fellow apprentices in dire times, your mother will not be disappointed."

Sunflora could only nod in reply to the Empoleon's compliment, "Steve should be back now. He'll show you around the place."

However, instead of the Smeargle, someone else was waiting for them - Bibarel.

"Hello there, Mr Bibarel. How was your day?" Rosa enquired.

The old beaver had a bag on his back, "Oh, hi! I just came back from Oran Forest. Buying food stocks from the Kecleon brothers is quite expensive, so I go out every day to forage for food. Although..." Bibarel sat up to unhook the bag straps from his front limbs, "My back hurts a bit now, I think it's just me getting old... yup. Ah, what wouldn't I give to have some of my youth back... speaking of which, I just heard from our residential artist - are you two officially a team now?"

"That's right!" Jenny answered cheerfully.

"Good on you!" a smile formed on his weathered face, "Well, I better get these berries back in the pantry, yup... have a nice day!"

Wearily, Bibarel headed towards the area with the chairs and tables. The large noticeboard next to the leftmost door of the guild read "Cafeteria". As the elderly guild member reached for the doorknob, someone else on the other side swung open the door. Emerging from the kitchen area was a yellow bipedal fox. Two long moustache hung from his nostril area, and his torso and joints were covered in sections of brown - similar to that of an American football player. After a short exchange with the old Bibarel, the Alakazam patted him on the shoulder, his other hand welding two ordinary spoons. Much to Jenny's amazement, the spoons shot out a magenta beam which enveloped Bibarel's bag, but instead of disintegrating into nothingness, the beam was lifting the bag into the air. While travelling over Bibarel's head, the bag tilted over a little, resulting in several round blue berries bouncing mischievously onto his head.

"That's Paul," said Smeargle, not looking impressed, "He's like Bibarel - does general duties around the guild. Most of the time he's helping Cory, though."

"Who's Cory?" the Piplup asked.

"Remember the red beams of light you have to go through at the entrance?" to this, both penguins behind Jenny began to cough, "That's Cory's doing. He's a Porygon in charge of security. No one actually knows what Cory does to keep out intruders, but we all agree he does a good job around the place. We are regarded as one of the safest guilds in the area, after all."

"I... see," said Emily, "So, Mr Smeargle, I am assuming you are here to take us on a tour around the place?"

"If you wish to," he replied, "To be honest, I don't hold tours as our guild is small and simple in terms of architecture. I do, however, need to explain a few things. Perhaps we'll discuss this as we explore around? There's an induction ceremony tomorrow morning..."

True to the Smeargle's words, there wasn't a lot to look at. If anything, Rosa thought of a guild simply as an enlarged version of her home. As she was examining the Darkrai made out of limestone, she felt something pressing against her left foot.

"Ow! What is it, Jenny?"

"Next time, don't put me under that kind of pressure again, _Rosalind_. Do you have any idea how awkward it was for me?"

"Okay! I'm sorry, alright?" said the Piplup, holding up her flippers in defence, "Team Gemstar is a nice name, though."

"Thanks," Jenny muttered. The compliment reduced her frown into a small grin.

"-and these three rooms are reserved for our teams," Smeargle's words brought their attention to the door on the right, "Currently we have three teams - including your team, of course - and about four other individuals affiliated to our guild. In the past most apprentices live with the guild until graduation, but nowadays, the teams and individuals have a choice. Right now, we have one room vacant, but we're still in the middle of constructing it, unfortunately."

"Is it this room?" Rosa pointed.

"Um... no. It's the one closest to Guildmaster's office. Over there," he answered, "This one belongs to Team CBE-"

"What?!" shouted one astonished Piplup. Noticing the raised eyebrows on the artist's face, Rosa quickly recomposed herself, "S-sorry, shouldn't have shouted."

"Right... as I was saying, Team CBE is one of our teams," Jenny stood and listened in great disdain as Smeargle continued, "Our best performing team so far. I must say, their leader Skitty have the good charisma required to guide her team."

_Best performing team? Those crooks who almost beaten us to death over a gemstone?_ The Torchic shook her head. _You have got to be kidding me..._

Luckily for both girls, the Empoleon was there to voice their concerns, "Mr Smeargle, are you aware of Team CBE's... _unscrupulous activities_?"

"So far we've only had one or two complaints from their clients," he shrugged, "Then again, most teams have those complaints every now and then. It's nothing serious."

Not impressed, Emily took a step closer to Smeargle, her shadow covering the artist entirely. "I am sorry, but I think this is quite serious. You should be aware Team CBE has a history of bullying clients to pay more for their services."

"I-I see," Smeargle scratched the back of his head, his eyes avoiding that of Emily's, "I will forward the message to Guildmaster later. W-we will ensure this matter is dealt with properly."

"Thank you. The girls and I will see you tomorrow morning for the induction ceremony."

As Jenny began climbing back up the spiralling staircase behind Emily, she took one last look at Smeargle, who was staring at the door leading to Team CBE's room. She saw him with slouched shoulders as he touched the door, before his left paw fell back down to his side. With a heavy sigh he turned around, heading towards Sunflora's office.

"He seems disappointed," said Rosa.

"Hey, they are the guild's 'Best Performing Team' after all," the Torchic turned back to the staircase and continued her ascend to the entrance, "Probably just finding it hard to accept the fact they're a bunch of crooks."

"True," the Piplup nodded, "Still, we have to deal with these guys? But then again, I don't think they would dare to do anything to us in front of other guild members..."

"Well, thank goodness for that. But let's not think about them too much now. We're now an exploration team, after all!"

"Hmm, maybe we'll ask gran to make us a feast, with Perfect Apples and dried banana and pickled cherries..."

"Slow down, Rosa," Emily's chuckles echoed off the dome, "I am not made of money, you know."

"We know," said the unanimous voices behind her. A series of giggles broke out soon after.

* * *

That night, while the residents of Sharpedo Bluff were sound asleep, dreaming of being heroes of Treasure Town, another hero from the other side of the world began to rise up to the occasion.

She had seen the signs - oh yes. For the past two weeks she could feel a dangerous presence. At first she passed it off as something simply caused by the other unrelated dangerous presence who had taken long term residence on her island, but...

_...but he's not strong enough. He hasn't been strong for so many years, ever since I found him. Plus, I don't think he's the type to go around making flowers and trees wilt around me. He knows better than to destroy the ecosystem on this island. Unless..._

"Unless it's caused by someone else. That, is what's on your mind, wasn't it?"

An audible gasp. "W-who's there?" she commanded.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid you and your little friend will have to come with us." the other voice resonated inside the cave. Several loud thuds followed, and a familiar metallic smell forced her to look for the source of the sound.

She immediately regretted it - lying before her were several bodies of her royal guard. The chubby pink fairy with gilded wings on his back was her best general, but there he was in front of her, impaled against a large piece of spiky rock. Even at death, the Clefable general was not at peace - the pair of bulging eyes and his wide open mouth was proof of that. Next to him were couple of his soldiers, and much to her horror, she discovered the origin of chunk of rock which had claimed the life of her general.

One of the Lunatone had the top of his body broken off.

"Your underlings had put up a good fight - but in the end, it is we who have conquered. Now, be a good girl, and come with us."

The temperature in the cave suddenly dropped a few degrees, but despite the atrocities being presented in front of her, she knew there was no time to display signs of weakness in front of her enemies. Quick as a flash she saw slight movements on her left, and swivelled to the side. A black ball of energy ricocheted from the perpetrator's hiding spot, and as it hit the wall it created an explosion which resonated through the small cave.

Staying in an enclosed area during an onslaught was never a good idea - she knew that. Like a speeding bullet, she charged towards the entrance of the cave, with nothing but the gentle evening breeze greeting her as she escaped. Projectiles of those Shadow Ball attacks sailed past her as she went across the clearing and into a side forest path, hoping the lush vegetation could give her some kind of cover. Her nearest pocket of soldiers were five minutes away from her current spot, but she needed time to figure out the next move.

These enemies were not like the usual groups of bandits she had to deal with - they killed her best general, for goodness sake. Though, she figured they must've been weakened significantly from battling with her general, since they haven't launched any major attacks at her. She made a mental note to give him - and the accompanying soldiers - a funeral ceremony fitting of a hero, before peering at the cave she had escaped from.

There were a few figures running out of the cave, but they looked nothing out of the ordinary. In fact, they appeared very much like regular bandits. However, most bandits are here to get their greedy hands on the rich resources produced on the island. These bandits, however, were looking for something else - or rather, someone. Not only that, but they targeted her specifically.

_"I'm afraid you and your little friend will have to come with us." How did they know about my little 'friend'? I mean, not even the General knows about him... I could probably take them all on, or call for reinforcements... oh, there's no time! The sooner they're out of here, the better._

With the decision firmly stamped upon her mind, she emerged from her hiding place. Her paws started glowing-

_"Game over."_

She never had a chance to attack. She did, however, let out a scream loud enough to raise an alarm.

The only trouble was, her nearest reinforcements were five minutes away.

* * *

...Jenny, it's Explorers League, not Exploration League. *is being pedantic* Also, I'm putting the name out without the apostrophe. I tried a couple of variations but in the end decided to go with my current one. Unless I missed something in the rules of grammar, again.

Oh, and when Cory is speaking in capital letters, he's speaking in a more mechanical tone (and let's be honest, writing everything he said in Caps Lock is going to kill your eyes). Also, Steve is Smeargle's name, but only Sunflora refers to him by that name (so far).

I have this rule for Pokémon and their names - if they're a main character that has a name, then I refer to them by that name. If they're just a minor/supporting character, then it'll depend on how they're introduced into the story. So if they're introduced to the reader by their species name, then I would refer to them by their species name unless special circumstances dictates me to do otherwise. (I created this rule after one of the readers from the old version complained about having to keep track of different character's names.)

And, despite the fact it took seven chapters, we finally have a glimpse into the dark side. To be honest, since the large amount of changes I made, coming up with suitable villains had been a difficult task...


End file.
